


Sensing the Storm

by hotelcortez



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Gen, Gunshots, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, Minor Injuries, Protect Stray Kids, Shooting, Violence, badass woolix, break-in, chan is a strong leader, hostages, woolix are protective of each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-12 23:14:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17476775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hotelcortez/pseuds/hotelcortez
Summary: It was supposed to be a day for them all to relax, a day for them all to clear their minds and catch up on their work.It was never supposed to be the day that the JYP building was broken into and they ended up hurt, scared and separated.It was never supposed to be the day that more than one member found themselves staring down the barrel of a gun.





	1. Suspicion

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to my first multi-chaptered story!
> 
> I'm very excited to post this as it has taken me so long to write, so I hope you can stick with me. There's not much action in this first chapter but it will pick up I promise. 
> 
> TW: violence, shootings, gunshots, blood, minor injuries, threats, minor character death
> 
> Enjoy! xx

“I really don’t remember agreeing to this on our day off,” Hyunjin grumbled, his voice muffled slightly by where his face was buried in Woojin’s shoulder, the older repeatedly making sure to poke him so he didn’t fall asleep.

“It was never a day off,” Chan replied absentmindedly as he looked out the window of the taxi five of them were piled into, the other four in the car not too far behind, “It was a day for us all to catch up on everything.”

“We all know that’s secretly code for a day-off hyung,” Jeongin whined from behind them, squashed in the very back with a half-asleep Jisung, “I was supposed to sleep all day.”

“Hey, your schedule today is important and you know it,” Chan retorted, “Minho, Hyunjin and Felix spent ages creating the choreography that you’re going to be learning this morning. Right, Hyunjin?”

“Hmm,” Hyunjin merely groaned in response, sleepily waving a hand to confirm Chan’s statement as the leader rolled his eyes.

“Well, once Hyunjin is actually awake, him and Minho are going to teach it to you and Seungmin. In the meantime, Changbin, Jisung and I will finish our latest set of lyrics and Woojin is going to help Felix at his vocal lesson,” Chan carried on explaining, knowing that the information he was sharing was most likely going in one ear and out the other with most members in the car, but at least they couldn’t blame him later when one of them ended up in the wrong place because they weren’t listening. 

“But when will you learn the dance, hyung?” Jeongin asked, the whine in his voice dulling slightly as he processed the day ahead. 

“Felix will teach Woojin, Changbin, Jisung and I when you, Hyunjin, Minho and Seungmin go to your English lesson this afternoon.” Chan explained, “I know it’s not ideal having us all learn at different times, but Felix’s vocal coach could only make this morning and your English teacher could only come this afternoon and we struggled to reserve a room to work on our lyrics that wasn’t really early this morning, so we had to complicate the schedule a little.”

“A little?” Jisung mumbled form the back seat, eyes still half-closed, “Hyung that sounds like a flippin’ nightmare.”

“Well as long as you do as you’re told, you shouldn’t end up getting lost,” Chan chided and both Hyunjin and Jeongin snorted.

“Hyung, he could get lost in an empty room,” the maknae remarked, giggling when Jisung opened his eyes to glare at him.

“I may be too tired to throw you out of this car now,” he said with a mock glare, “But you better watch your back later.”

“Oooh, I’m scared,” Jeongin replied sarcastically, wiggling his fingers in an exaggerated gesture of fear and Hyunjin laughed from in front of them, watching them fondly over Woojin’s shoulder.

“Maybe we should be glad those two happen to be scheduled away from each other for most of the day,” Woojin suddenly spoke up, “Because I do not want to have to deal with an angry squirrel and a surprisingly scary child for much longer.”

“Hey!” Jeongin and Jisung both shouted in surprise, causing the whole car to dissolve into giggles as they drew closer to the official JYP building that held all the practice rooms and studios that they were going to need. 

Jeongin and Jisung playfully bickered the rest of the journey, which did wonders for helping to pull Hyunjin out of his half-asleep phase, but unfortunately did not help Chan get his mind off the complicated schedule he and his group had managed to get themselves into for the day. It wasn’t that he didn’t mind having some time to catch up on anything, he just wished it could be as simple as it sounded. Days like this before had been easy to manage, even with nine members all needing to be in different places at different times with different people who also had packed schedules. They had always managed to make it work. But for some reason, this time they’d run into a whole world of problems with teachers’ schedules clashing, practice rooms being closed down and a blatant refusal from several people to even try and co-operate with them. It was like all the problems from all the other free days had somehow gotten lumped onto this one. It was like the day was cursed or something…

“You okay?” came a soft voice from beside him and Chan was pulled out of his thoughts only to turn and catch the kind, slightly concerned, eyes of Woojin. The older was staring down at him, no longer distracted by the play-fighting currently going on between Jisung, Jeongin and Hyunjin. 

“Yeah…” Chan breathed out, turning to face the window again but making sure to still direct his words at Woojin, “It’s just today was so hard to organise… I can’t help but feel like something’s going to go wrong.”

“I get that, Chan,” Woojin responded, but Chan’s attention was immediately diverted to the tone of Woojin’s voice. Something sounded slightly off about it, like Woojin was holding something back… something important. 

“I know the schedule is busy, so one of us will probably end up going to the wrong place, but…”

“Not that kind of wrong,” Chan cut him off, “I can’t help but feel like something… something drastic is going to happen. Not something simple like missing a lesson, something really really bad.”

Chan expected to be laughed at or chewed out for his words, thinking that the group’s oldest was going to find him stupid or weird for having such irrational emotions. What Chan definitely didn’t expect was the slight distance and closed-off look Woojin had in his eyes to change to one of pure understanding. 

“I wasn’t going to mention it earlier,” Woojin practically whispered, quickly looking behind him to check that the three youngest boys in the car were now all firmly distracted by a game on Jisung’s phone, “But I woke up with a really bad feeling.”

“What kind of bad feeling?” Chan asked, tone serious as small tinges of fear began to nip at him.

“The kind that you described… the feeling that something bad is about to happen,” Woojin answered sincerely.

The two just stared at each other for a second, watching the fear flame timidly in the other’s eyes. One person waking up with a bad feeling was weird. Two people was just downright scary. Chan couldn’t help but feel that this was some kind of warning, some kind of external force warning them to run far and run fast. To get away as soon as they were physical able.

But what kind of leader would he be if he pulled his group away from their work? If he deprived them of one of the rare chances they would have to get all the lyrics, choreography and everything else organised in their heads? What kind of example what he and Woojin, the self-proclaimed parents of the group, be setting if they dropped everything simply because of a bad feeling?

“I guess…” he swallowed nervously, “I guess we’ll both just keep an extra eye out today… make sure nothing drastic happens.”

“Yeah,” Woojin responded quietly, shaking his head slightly to dispel some lingering bad thoughts, “It’s probably nothing anyway. We’re probably just paranoid after being on our feet so long, we both know it’s going to feel weird to actually be able to settle into something for a while.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Chan replied, turning behind him to face the screaming maknae to signal he was finished discussing the topic. Jeongin met his eyes with a toothy grin, evidently proud of annoying Jisung so much that the rapper had buried himself under his hood, whining about how must have done something really bad in a past life to deserve all this, whilst Hyunjin struggled to breathe through his devilish giggles.

Despite all the bad feelings, Chan found himself smiling as he watched them. These boys were all so full of life, so strong and cheerful through all the hardships they faced together. Nothing bad would happen to them. The universe wouldn’t be that cruel.

Or so he hoped.

It wasn’t long before they were pulling up next to the building and Chan was the first to step out, promptly opening Jeongin’s door so he could help him and Jisung onto the pavement whilst Woojin and Hyunjin clamoured out next to him. 

The other car arrived a few moments later and the doors were immediately swung open. Seungmin and Minho hauled themselves tiredly out the back, whilst Felix climbed out the middle, quickly swinging around to catch a half-asleep Changbin before he toppled out the door and face-planted onto the pavement. 

Most of the group, including Changbin, laughed at the duo’s actions but Chan was too distracted by the look in Felix’s eyes to join in. Felix wasn’t laughing either and Chan was shocked to recognise the slight hint of fear playing on his features, the fear that meant Felix had also woken up with a bad feeling that morning. A bad feeling that was whispering that there was something lurking in the shadows of today, something that was going to endanger them all. 

If Chan wasn’t currently feeling the exact same way himself, he never would have been able to recognise the emotion Felix was unsuccessfully trying to hide. Two members waking up feeling like this was scary. Three members was outright terrifying. The ominous phrase ‘bad things come in threes’ echoed its way through Chan’s mind and he almost ordered them all home right there and right then, too afraid of the irrational uneasiness that was curling in his gut.

But the managers would kill him if he took the group home now. He couldn’t cancel their entire meeting because of a bad feeling. He couldn’t worry the entire group like that. 

So, he settled for lightly tapping Woojin’s shoulder and gesturing towards Felix, drawing the elder’s attention to how Felix was worriedly staring into space, seeming to barely notice the way he was half-dragging a still sleepy Changbin into the building. Chan could tell the exact moment that Woojin noticed the look in Felix’s eyes and he turned back to Chan with a determined nod, making a mental note to keep one eye on Felix and the other eye on everything else to help stem the suspicion that was hissing at him that something bad was about to happen. 

The paranoia between the two of them had spiked now, laced with undertones of intense fear and concern. They couldn’t wait for the time in which they would make it back to the dorm that night, laughing about how silly they’d been to be so scared for no reason. But something… something really awful was whispering to them that that wasn’t going to happen, that something was waiting to strike.

Chan tried to fake a smile as he followed everyone else through the big double doors into the building. He knew most of the members would probably not believe it, but he had the excuse of being tired from waking up so early if anyone called him out on it, so he didn’t focus too much on that.

He led them all to a side stairwell that idols usually used to avoid crowds and began to walk up the stairs, listening as the group, barring Woojin and Felix, chatted animatedly. Minho was hanging onto Jeongin’s shoulder, teasing the maknae about how cute he was going to look doing the choreography he’d prepared. Jeongin was groaning in response and trying to hide his face, clinging onto Seungmin’s arm in a silent beg for his hyung to save him. But Seungmin was barely even paying attention, too focused on how Jisung was practically pleading Changbin to stop walking backwards up the stairs, terrified that the rapper was going to fall. Changbin grinned evilly in response and tried to walk faster, bumping into the back of Hyunjin who repeatedly turned and elbowed him in retaliation.

Woojin and Felix trailed behind, Felix tucked firmly under Woojin’s shoulder, too absorbed in his dark thoughts to contribute to the light that was the group’s antics.

“Alright,” Chan’s leader voice drew him out a couple of moments later, “Dance floor.”

He pointed to the door that lead them away from the stairs and watched like a hawk as the appropriate members made their way through, quickly grabbing onto the back of Jisung’s hood and yanking him away to stop him absentmindedly following everyone else through like he had been about to do.

“You, Changbin and I are writing this morning, not dancing… remember?” Chan deadpanned and Jisung’s eyes widened in response, a mischievous grin lining his face.

“Ohhhhhh yeah,” he exclaimed with a giggle, “Sorry hyung, I got confused.”

“Wouldn’t expect anything less of you, Jisung,” Chan retorted as he ruffled the younger’s hair, admittedly endeared by the youthful actions of his bandmate. Jisung was too cute and innocent… there was no way anything could ever happen to him. 

The group carried on upwards for another three floors until they reached the one with all the recording rooms that contained all the equipment they needed to produce. Changbin temporarily paused his conversation with Chan to grab onto the door handle and pull the door open for the leader, raising his eyebrows when Chan hesitated in the doorway.

“Make sure you guys take care of each other, okay?” he said, turning back to face Woojin and Felix. His face held a deadly amount of sincerity and a small degree of desperation, and it was then that he watched the recognition dawn on Felix’s young face, the teenager’s eyes wide as he switched his gaze from Chan to Woojin and then back again, shocked breaths leaving his lips.

“Don’t worry, Chan, we will,” Woojin promised as he squeezed Felix’s shoulder, not wanting to further fuel the fear he could feel lining the younger’s posture.

“Okay… I’ll see you later,” Chan responded quietly as he turned and walked through the door that was still being held open, ignoring the confused looks Changbin and Jisung were throwing him as they followed to the room that they had reserved for the morning.

Meanwhile, Woojin and Felix continued their journey up the stairs, their destination only one floor higher than 3racha’s. Felix’s eyes were darting around as he fiddled nervously with his hands. Woojin could tell he wanted to say something, but whether he was holding back out of fear or because he couldn’t find the words, Woojin didn’t know. It was most likely both.

“Hyung,” Felix started off quietly as they exited the stairwell, his timid voice echoing loudly through the empty rooms. This floor was always deserted at this time; the practice rooms were too small to be any use for dancers and most of the singers didn’t need to be up this early in the morning. Felix’s vocal teacher wasn’t due to arrive for another half an hour, but Woojin and Felix had decided to come early so they could travel with all the other members and so Woojin could take Felix through some warm-ups to stop him from being too nervous when the teacher arrived.

“What is it, Lix?” Woojin prompted when Felix fell silent again, gaze locked firmly to the floor as he let Woojin lead him to the right room.

“Do you… do you feel like this too?” he practically whispered, sighing slightly in relief when they reached the chairs in the practice room and Felix was able to sit down.

“Like everything is going to go wrong?” Woojin clarified, clearing his throat when Felix nodded, “I do, Lix, and you’ve probably noticed that Chan does as well. But this is probably just some weird side effect of all the stress we’ve been under. Today is so different from all the other days we’ve had lately, it was always inevitable that some of us were going to be on edge.”

“I guess…” Felix said unconvincingly, gaze darting upwards when Woojin reached out and squeezed his hand, a comforting look adorning his features.

“Why don’t we start some warm-ups, yeah?” he offered kindly, “Maybe it’ll help this whole thing go a little faster.”

“Yeah, okay,” Felix agreed, straightening up in his seat and getting ready to begin.

They slowly eased into the warm-ups and Felix found himself gradually relaxing into the distraction as Woojin’s comforting presence helped to distil his nerves. The pair were ten minutes in when sudden hushed voices in the corridor caught their attention.

That was odd. Usually no-one would be on this floor for at least another two hours.

Woojin and Felix shared a confused look, both taking note of how determined and urgent the voices sounded. Words like ‘plan’ and ‘get ready’ and ‘action’ were casually tossed into the conversation, a sinister undertone lining their every word. 

There was something off about the way they were speaking… something almost foreboding about the threatening tones they were using.

Hearts racing, Felix and Woojin crept slowly over towards the closed door of their room, carefully leaning towards the small window carved into the wood that would allow them to see into the corridor. They immediately caught sight of numerous figures all dressed entirely in black, hands loaded with danger. Shock jolted through the air as Felix and Woojin instantly recoiled, but not before one of the figures caught sight of their faces in the nearby glass.

That’s when the shots rang out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I hope that wasn't a too bad first chapter?
> 
> I know there wasn't a lot of action, but trust me we will get there.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading and I hope you go on to enjoy the rest xx


	2. Realisation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The music they were making was playing hilariously loud, but it would have never been enough to stop them hearing the three sharp bangs that practically shook the building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and welcome to chapter 2!!
> 
> Thank you so much to anyone who read chapter 1 and is now back to read more. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.
> 
> This chapter is actually the shortest one I have written so far so you can all expect longer updates in the future
> 
> Enjoy!! xx

The music they were making was playing hilariously loud, but it would have never been enough to stop them hearing the three sharp bangs that practically shook the building. The three sharp bangs that sounded a lot like gunshots.

Jisung jumped so hard he fell out of his seat and Chan and Changbin instantly froze, gazes locked fearfully to the ceiling where they had heard the blood-curdling noises coming from. 

For a second… for just one tiny, insufferable second… silence reigned.

No one moved.

No one spoke.

No one even dared to breathe as their brains processed what the hell they had just heard. 

Chaos erupted.

Chan shot out of his chair like he had just been electrocuted as a shrill alarm blasted through the air, almost drowned out by terrified screams and the suffocating sound of hundreds of panicked footsteps streaking their way across the building, almost as loud as the blood now roaring in Chan’s ears because he had been right! His breaths left him haphazardly, eyes almost widening out of his sockets because he had been right! He had known this was going to happen. He had known this was going to happen and he had done nothing! 

He’d ignored his instincts, he’d ignored his worries, he’d ignored the pull he felt on every single cell in his body that was telling him that he needed to get out, that he needed to get his members away.

He ignored something he never should have and now all his members were in danger because of it.

“Were those… were those gunshots?!” Jisung’s panicked tone snapped Chan out of his thoughts and he was instantly dashing over to his bandmate and pulling him off the floor.

“I don’t know,” he swivelled around, his free hand quickly saving his work before he used it to forcefully tug Changbin out of his seat, “But we need to get out of here. Now.”

The trio sprinted over to the door and ripped it open, allowing themselves to be sucked into the small, terrified crowd that were racing towards the staircase. People pushed, shoved and yelled as Chan vehemently linked arms with both Changbin and Jisung, grips on them painfully tight to avoid losing them in the confusion.

They followed the crowd, not seeing anyone that could put them in danger but still jumping every time someone touched them. The gunshots had warned them that there was evil somewhere in the building, that there was someone around who was carrying a machine designed to kill. The thought sent panic into their veins and shivers curling down their spines, pure fear laced into their every movement. 

They reached the staircase unscathed, still horrified and scared out of their minds but more than ready to run somewhere that might get them out, that might let them live. Thoughts of the other members entered their minds, Changbin even trying to turn back a couple of times, too afraid that he was leaving behind some of the people he cherished most in the world. But Chan pulled him back, shouting that he would never find them in the crowd, that the other members were strong and smart, that they’d be able to get themselves out safely. Changbin prayed that Chan was right; he wouldn’t know what to do with himself if he wasn’t. 

They kept going, Chan’s heartbeat thundering in his ears as they all began to run down the stairs, suddenly hearing more shots followed by awful screams that burned their way through his brain, this time coming from below them on the ground floor. 

They kept running.

They had made it about halfway to the bottom when Chan found himself becoming alarmingly aware of the rising panic in Jisung who was clinging to the right of him and becoming increasingly heavy and more difficult to drag along, unintentionally beginning to depend more and more on Chan for support. By this point, Chan was 100% sure that it was only the adrenalin that was keeping Jisung on his feet and Chan prayed to every higher power that he could think of that the adrenalin would last long enough to get them outside. Once they got outside Jisung could collapse and Chan and Changbin could hold him until it was all over. If he collapsed now, they would have no hope.

They safely managed reached the floor above the main entrance but were completely frozen at the sight that met them there, pure horror ricocheting its way through their veins as they all stopped short.

Over the large balcony that loomed over the reception area, they could see at least three gunmen pacing dangerously around the room, numerous people sprawled, laid and sat on the floor around them, some of them crying at the weapons they had pointed in their faces, some of them just trying to put on brave faces.

It was a hostage situation. A hostage situation in which the gunmen had all the people completely trapped and were playing threateningly with their lives, uncaring of how every single one of these people had families, how every single one of these people had a precious life that they were trying to protect, how every single one of them would be missed. Guns were waved around and threats were screamed as the victims looked on terrified, too afraid to react or move in a way that might just get them killed, that might just deprive them of absolutely everything.

Jisung almost threw up at the sight.

Luckily, there was no sign of blood, bodies or injuries but the boys didn’t have time to think about it before a security sprinted over and practically shoved them over to the side stairwell that they had used that morning, urgently whispering at them and everyone else to run to the emergency exit waiting for them at the bottom. 

They wasted no time, lungs practically on fire as they raced down, heads spinning and hands shaking with the fear that controlled their every action. None of them breathed properly until they plummeted out into the fresh air, cold smacking them in their faces and practically freezing the sweat coating their bodies. 

They stumbled over to a gap in the pavement, all wheezing in a simultaneous, strangled breath as they dropped to their knees, landing painfully on the hard ground. People around them did the same, unable to stand up after such an extreme rush of emotion, shouting at each other to check everyone was okay and that they’d made it out alive. 

Chan almost doubled over in an overwhelming rush of relief, shock, terror and disbelief. He couldn’t believe what had just happened. He couldn’t believe that he had almost predicted it. He couldn’t believe he had just sat by and let his members out of his sight when he should have known that something really, really bad was about to happen to all of them.

He had to suppress a sob at the thought of his other members scared like he was, running for their lives and trying to get out, the traumatising sound of gunshots following them as they escaped.

That was if they were lucky enough to escape… No! Chan forcefully shook his head, he couldn’t let himself think like that. The other members would make it out. They had to make it out. He wouldn’t be able to bear it if they didn’t make it out.

Sirens wailed in the distance as more people poured out the emergency exits, looking surprised that they had somehow gotten away from the danger. Chan couldn’t help but think of the people that were still in there, the people that the gunmen had managed to catch and were still being held hostage for whatever sick, twisted reason the gunmen had come up with in their minds. He could only pray that no one had actually been shot.

“Hyung!” the frantic voice sparked his attention and he turned just in time to see Jisung collapse in on himself from the effects of the adrenalin wearing off. He landed messily on Chan’s shoulder, hands immediately coming to cling so hard to the leader’s shirt that his knuckles turned white. 

“Deep breaths, okay Jisung?” Chan voiced calmly as he wrapped his arms around his friend, tangling one of his hands in his hair and looping the other round his back, “It’s okay now. You’re safe. You got out, I got out and I’m here with you now. It’s all okay.”

Jisung took deep breaths from where his face was now buried into Chan’s chest, feeling Changbin’s hands coming to squeeze his shoulders from behind as the fear slowly drained out of him, vision blurring less and hands visibly shaking slower as he came down from the emotional roller coaster. Chan and Changbin continued to shush him and he gradually relaxed into their embrace, mirroring the calmness and bravery they were able to show despite the situation, using their soft touches and gentle words to ground him. 

Another few minutes of listening to Chan’s breathing was all it took for him to calm down further and he was able to cling to Chan and Changbin’s arms as they carefully hauled him up, pulling him out the way when numerous police cars skidded to a stop in the road in front of them. Armed policemen flooded out and the crackle of walkie-talkies filled the air, the officers already planning how they were going to stop the gunmen.

Changbin watched with his heart in his throat, still holding tightly to Jisung’s hand to hopefully stop the younger from feeling the same kind of fear. Deep down, Changbin knew that such a simple action would not be able to quell all the extreme emotion that the situation was forcing on them, but he hoped it was at least a small semblance of comfort. 

They all jumped when Chan’s phone started ringing from inside his pocket, hands clutching at their chests at the sudden fright the noise had given them. 

“Oh my god,” Chan breathed out, chest heaving and hands shaking as he tried to remain firmly on his feet, “It’s just my phone. I thought for a second there that… that…” he trailed off, unable to form the words to convey the images that had flashed in his mind at hearing a sudden noise.

“I know, hyung, it’s okay” Changbin replied, understanding instantly and reaching out a hand to soothingly squeeze the leader’s shoulder as he dug the phone out his pocket. Chan immediately turned the device so he could see who was calling him and Jisung and Changbin watched as his face deformed to display half relief, half terror. 

“Who is it, hyung?” Jisung asked quietly, trying to take a deep breath to calm the nerves that had re-surfaced after catching the look on Chan’s face. Chan met his eyes in shock, mouth forming a single word.

“Minho.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this chapter!! I hope you can stick around for the next one where we'll catching up with a few other members xx
> 
> Next update is 2-3 days away!!


	3. Hurt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He shook his head as he tried to focus, telling himself he just needed to do as the gunmen said until he figured out a way of getting them the hell out of there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and welcome to chapter 3! This is where it is really starting to get intense 
> 
> I just wanted to thank everyone who commented on chapter 2 and said they couldn't wait for my next update, honestly it made me so happy knowing that people were excited about it, so thank you so so so much xx
> 
>  That being said, I really hope you enjoy this new chapter

“STAY STILL!” 

Felix flinched at the shout, sweat dripping down his forehead and heart pounding in his chest as he tried not to shake too much in front of the man who had a gun pointed directly at him, face pulled into a deadly snarl that screamed of nothing but a need to punish Woojin and Felix after they’d accidentally ruined their plan.

Turns out there were numerous gunmen spread throughout the building, separated into what they considered the most significant locations like the main reception or conference room that would attract a lot of attention and be filled with people, making it harder for the police to take them down. They had been using the vocal floor as a headquarter of sorts, deciding that its emptiness meant they could plan in peace.

Unfortunately, Woojin and Felix apparently had the worst case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and the gunmen had been enraged to find they weren’t alone as they thought. The three bullet holes in the wall next to them were evidence of that. It was where the gunmen had fired to scare them enough to drag them struggling out the room.

Woojin could still remember the way his ears stung when the bullets hit the wall and how everything started to go in slow motion, the plaster of the wall cracking sinisterly as sheer, unadulterated terror had invaded Felix’s face. The young Australian had stumbled away to the corner of the room, legs barely holding him up as the first gunman barged in, eyes flaming with calculated anger. Woojin had been frozen up until the point one of them had grabbed Felix and then, in an act that was so unlike anything he’d ever done, he was screaming, fighting and scratching, demanding to be let go, demanding that no one touch Felix, demanding that they leave them the hell alone. 

He’d probably still be fighting now if it wasn’t for the bullet that had smashed the window dangerously close to where Felix had been pinned up against the door. Glass cut all down the side of Felix’s face and a cold voice had warned them that he’d be bleeding a lot worse if Woojin didn’t stop fighting them.

So, now they were knelt on the ground, arms bruised and heads lowered as they tried to not to further anger the gunmen, terrified of the consequences that would follow if they did. Woojin spied how much Felix’s hand was shaking out of the corner of his eye and he itched to reach out and hold it, completely pained by the way he couldn’t comfort his friend when he was so clearly hurt and scared. How the gunmen could live with themselves after hurting a clearly terrified kid, Woojin didn’t know.

He shook his head as he tried to focus, telling himself he just needed to do as the gunmen said until he figured out a way of getting them the hell out of there. 

There was only one gunman left with them, the rest had disappeared to enact whatever part of the evil plan was left to them. Felix momentarily considered using his taekwondo skills to try and take them down; he knew he was scared and aggravated enough for him to be able to do some real damage. But then he caught sight of the guns again and his breath got stuck in his throat at the thought of hearing the awful shots again. He had felt the whole door vibrate when the bullet entered the glass next to his head. He had felt the way the glass pierced sharply into his skin, blood dripping down his face. He had felt his entire life flash before his eyes, crazed thoughts of his members, his family and his home spinning through his mind as he had stared death in the face. 

The indistinguishable relief and absolute terror he had felt when he realised he hadn’t been shot was a moment he was never, ever going to be able to forget. Not in a million years.

He could take down a man. He couldn’t take down a gun.

“If one of you even thinks about playing hero,” the cold tone made Felix jump again as the attacker spoke up, “Then you both die, got it?”

The threat sent spine-tingling shivers through Felix’s and Woojin’s bodies as they nodded, too terrified of something happening to the other to consider answering any other way.

“Good.” The attacker responded harshly, eyes still boring into his two new victims. 

The threat had sent harsh, unyielding images flying through Felix’s mind, images of Woojin with a gun to his chest, images of Woojin with a hole where his heart should be, images of Woojin lying deathly pale and completely still in a sea of red because Felix hadn’t been able to follow orders and his actions had been so stupid and awful that he’d gotten one of his best friends killed. 

He didn’t realise he’d spaced out until a sharp slap to his left cheek drew him out, pain exploding on the side of his face where the gunman’s palm had forcefully met the cuts already caused by the glass. His chest heaved as he whimpered, a strangled breath forcing its ugly way out of his throat, sounding somewhere between a cry of pain and a sob. 

Woojin looked absolutely furious, teeth bared and eyes dangerous as he watched his friend struggle, bent double on his knees with blood dripping from his face to the floor, horrifying sounds leaving his mouth. And the attacker… the attacker looked proud of what he’d done, proud of the suffering he had caused to a kid. 

The only thing that stopped Woojin from charging at him right there and then was the gun that the attacker still had tactically pointed at Felix, a silent promise that he would end Felix’s life in a heartbeat if Woojin so much as moved the wrong way.

The threat didn’t last long, however, as the attacker screamed at Felix to kneel up properly and threw a fist directly into his face when he didn’t respond fast enough. Felix crumpled to the ground with a pained yelp and Woojin saw absolutely nothing but red. 

Fortunately the gunman had, in his haste to punch Felix, failed to realise that that meant the gun was no longer pointed at him and Woojin seized the opportunity, gathering up every inch of strength he had in his body to lunge forward with a feral growl, tackling the attacker to the floor and trapping his gun underneath him. 

Cold, unfiltered anger soared through him as he forced his hands down onto the gunman’s shoulders, pinning him in place with a deadly snarl held firmly on Woojin’s face, glaring gleefully down at his assailant as a sizzle of fear danced momentarily in the man’s murderous eyes.

Woojin was too distracted by that, however, to notice the elbow heading directly for his face, shock racing through him when his face burst in pain and stars exploded behind his eyes, the entire world momentarily fading to black as he was tossed backwards. 

He landed on his back with a pained grunt, fists curling and eyes forced shut as he whined through the feeling of fire roaring through his face. Blood poured from his nose and down onto his chin, staining the bottom half of his face and the carpet underneath him with a sickening red as he struggled. Maniacal laughter and scared crying reached his ears as the world blurred in all the confusion, sounds and sights all fading into one as he tried to process the absolute agony in his head, still writhing around in his inability to control it. 

The world only seemed to become more confusing as two blurred figures suddenly turned into one when one of them grabbed onto the other and a cry of pain echoed through the air, Woojin almost snapping out of his daze when he realised the sound didn’t come from him. 

He continued through the confusion as the pained sounds only got louder, accompanied by sharp smacks and thumps that had Woojin flinching every time. His eyes focused just in time to see one of them straighten up with a large object shaking in their tight grip. They raised it up and swung it down, one last cry of agony ringing out before the object came up and then down again and both figures collapsed out of sight.

Thoughts raced a mile a minute through Woojin’s head as he tried to work out what the hell had just happened, breaths quickening and the pain increasing and his entire body vibrating with the need had to know what was going on. 

He slowly became aware of a hand cupping his face and a presence above him, shaky words leaving the mouth of whoever it was. A flinch escaped him as he anticipated another hit, but the voice only shushed him and promised that it was going to be okay, that they were going to get out, that he just needed to calm down.

The confusion only increased; Woojin had just been hit, why the hell was he now suddenly being comforted? What the hell was going on?

His breaths quickened again before they slowed down, still scared by whoever it was that was crouched over him, but the fear subsided as the voice gradually got more desperate, practically begging Woojin to snap out of it, begging him to be okay…

The pure, child-like distress he heard in the voice had been enough to pull Woojin out whatever kind of pained hell his head had stuck him in and his vision cleared enough to reveal Felix staring worriedly down at him, one small hand squeezing Woojin’s shoulder and the other wiping blood form his face. Bruises shone darkly on his cheeks and jaw, one at the top of his face swollen so badly that Felix could barely open the eye that it covered. Terror radiated freshly off him in waves and his posture was so tense that Woojin could tell he was in pain, probably from injuries hidden by his clothing that the older couldn’t see. 

“F-Felix,” Woojin managed to choke out and Felix’s eyes widened in the most scrambled sense of relief he had ever felt, heart practically stopping as he heaved in the deepest breath he was able to manage, trying to force his nerves to stop spiralling out of control.

“Oh my god, Woojin!” he exclaimed, honorifics completely forgotten as he gripped tightly onto Woojin’s shoulders, “Are you okay? Does it hurt? Oh my god I thought he’d killed you for a second there! Can you move? Can you get up? We need to get out of here! Oh my god I thought you were actually dead!”

The words left him in a tumble, stutters and hitches lining his every syllable as he clung to his older friend. Body pulsing with the need to grab him and hug him and never left go, hopefully making the horrifying images he had of Woojin writhing on the floor with blood streaming down his face leave his mind forever. 

“Felix, it’s okay,” Woojin managed, ignoring the pain still in his nose as carefully brought a hand up to squeeze one of Felix’s, knowing he still needed to figure out what had happened to avoid letting the confusion continuously scramble his brain, leaving them open and vulnerable, “I need you to tell me what happened to the gunman, Felix. Are we safe?”

“Oh my god, I knocked him out!” Felix answered completely panicked, “I was trying to fight him and he was winning and then he tried to reach for his gun, but I was closer so I grabbed it and just smacked him with it! Oh my god, I can’t believe I did that! We need to go now! What if he wakes up?!”

“Okay, okay Felix,” Woojin managed, “We’ll go right now, okay? We’ll go hide somewhere and it’ll all be okay. You just need to stay calm, alright?” 

Felix nodded with scared eyes and his hands shook as he pulled Woojin off the floor, promptly whipping off his jacket and holding it up to the elder’s face when the standing position revealed that the blood was still spilling from his nose. 

Woojin accepted the clothing gratefully and used one hand to hold it in place and looped the other round Felix’s waist, only now noticing the way the younger was clutching his ribs and swaying on his feet, face significantly paler than it was a few seconds go.

“How badly are you hurt?” Woojin spoke around the jacket, eyeing Felix suspiciously.

“Nothing serious,” Felix winced, “Just a hell of a lot of bruises.”

“Feeeeeeelix…” Woojin prompted.

“I think… I think my ribs are busted,” Felix answered guiltily, “He kicked me a few times and it… it kinda hurts to breathe.”

Woojin had to close his eyes and take a deep breath at the words, anger coursing through his veins at the thought of someone hurting a young kid like that, especially a young kid as precious as Felix.

“Okay, tell me if it gets too much, alright?” Woojin said weakly around the anger as they slowly approached the side stairwell, intent on finding an emptier floor they could hide on until the building was no longer under attack.

“You too,” Felix responded, opening the door for them as they staggered through, still tightly clinging to one another, deciding it was probably better to head up rather than down as the majority of shots they’d heard that weren’t on their own floor had come from the ones below them. 

“We’re going to be okay, right hyung?” Felix questioned timidly as they continued upwards, breaths slow and jaws tight in pain. 

“Of course we are, Lix,” Woojin didn’t even hesitate, “We’re going to get out of this perfectly fine. The other members are probably already outside and we’ll be able to join them soon.”

“I really hope you’re right,” Felix said, “I really hope they’re all okay.”

“Me too,” Woojin responded as they headed further up, desperately praying that their journey wouldn’t lead them straight into another onslaught of danger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I do love Woojin and Felix, I promise xx
> 
> I actually have very little experience writing this kind of genre so I hope I did okay with all the fight scenes and injuries and stuff? 
> 
> I also know that we haven't really heard a lot from Minho, Hyunjin, Seungmin and Jeongin yet but don't worry we will be catching up with them in the next chapter, which should come out on Monday.


	4. Fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They’d been lucky to get out so quickly. He couldn’t help but think that it wouldn’t be so easy for the other members.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooooo I know I said I would update on Monday, and I know that where I live Monday is still technically an hour away. But the chapter was finished and I knew I probably wouldn't sleep much tonight anyway and I have absolutely zero self-control so I'm posting it now.
> 
> Once again, thank you so much to everyone who commented on the last chapter. Your comments honestly give me life and hearing that you're excited for the next update makes me feel so happy and soft and warm inside uwu so thank you xx
> 
> I hope you enjoy this new chapter!

Ring… ring… ring

Minho closed his eyes and prayed as the phone continued to ring, prayed with everything he had that their ever-faithful leader would pick up the phone. Jeongin was clinging to his arm on the right of him, large eyes scared and brimming with tears, too young and innocent to hide the distress of what he had just experienced, the distress of not knowing whether the rest of Stray Kids were even alive. 

Minho, Hyunjin, Seungmin and Jeongin had all been dancing when the shots had rung out. The music had been loud, but not loud enough, and soon the upbeat rhythm had been drowned out by screams, bullets and panic. 

They’d all been frozen at first, too scared and confused by the loud bangs to even consider moving. But then Minho, the eldest of the bunch, had felt Jeongin crash into him from behind, shaking Minho’s shoulder and yelling something about how they all needed to get out, horror chillingly enhancing his every word. 

Hearing the fear so prominent in his maknae had instantly snapped Minho out of his daze and he’d quickly turned and tucked Jeongin under his arm, grabbing onto Hyunjin with his other hand and screaming at him to grab Seungmin as he raced them out the room. 

They’d been some of the first to make it safely out the building. They’d been on a high enough floor that they’d managed to avoid being taken as a hostage in one of the busy areas, but on a low enough floor that they didn’t need to run down too many staircases to get out. 

Fear had controlled their every step, arms linked and breaths heavy as they’d run. The sight of the hostage situation in the main reception area had almost floored them all, but Seungmin had made sure to wrap both arms firmly around Hyunjin when both his had legs buckled and practically carried him outside, following Minho who had pushed Jeongin’s head into his shoulder to prevent their maknae from witnessing such a horror.

Hyunjin had ended up laid in his back on the cold pavement the moment they’d hit the fresh air and Seungmin and Jeongin held his hands on either side of him, rubbing circles onto his knuckles as they reassured him that he was safe. Minho had remained a little to the side, struggling to catch his breath after being the one to lead them all out. 

They’d been lucky to get out so quickly. He couldn’t help but think that it wouldn’t be so easy for the other members. 

That was when he’d fallen to his knees beside the others, letting his arm fall over Seungmin’s shoulders as he frantically asked them all if they could see any of the other members in the thickening crowd. 

Hyunjin had recovered pretty quickly after that, body rushed with adrenalin at the thought of the rest of his friends still trapped in the building they’d tried so hard to escape from. He joined the others as they ran through the crowd in a frenzied panic, clinging to each other’s hands as they yelled out the names of all the other members. 

Though none of them dared to say it out loud, they knew the others were on much higher floors so it would have been much more difficult for them to make it out safely. The thought of anything to happening to their members sent ripples of cold anxiety and icy dread storming through their blood, to the extent that Hyunjin was still shaking and Seungmin had tears in his eyes as he tried to wipe away the one flowing down Jeongin’s cheeks.

After five minutes of searching had proved unsuccessful, Minho had stopped them all, panting out through painful breaths that he was going to try and call Chan.

So there they were, huddled around each other in nail-biting tension as the phone in Minho’s hand rang and rang and rang, the sweat getting heavier on their foreheads for every second that their ever-present leader didn’t answer.

The unbearable silence was ended by a small click from the phone and a panicked tone crackling through the air.

“Hello?! Minho?!”

The intangible feelings of relief sent them all to their knees as Chan’s angelic voice came flying out the phone, the members no longer harrowingly imagining something awful happening to their leader. 

“Oh my god!” Minho exclaimed, knuckles white as he clung to the phone, “Oh my god, hyung! Are you alright?! Are you safe?! Who’s with you?!”

“I’m okay, Minho!” Chan’s voice quickly answered, “I’ve got Changbin and Jisung with me, they’re all safe I promise!”

A collective sigh of relief was heard from Seungmin, Hyunjin and Jeongin, so loud that it almost drowned out Chan’s next words. 

“What about you? You’re safe, right? You’ve got everyone with you?”

Minho had been about to answer when Jeongin sprang forward out of nowhere and snatched the phone, Hyunjin quickly darting over and catching Seungmin who had been leaning heavily on Jeongin and almost fell at being unprepared for him leaping out so suddenly. 

“We’re all here, hyung!” Jeongin practically yelled into the phone, “All of us who were in the dance studio are here! We’re all okay!”

“That’s good, Jeongin,” Chan sounded overwhelmed with relief, “That’s really good. You should come find us, we’re really near to all the police cars so if you come that way then we shouldn’t be too hard to spot.”

“Okay hyung, don’t move,” Minho responded, plucking the phone back out of Jeongin’s fingers as he straightened up, “I’m not going to be able to stay connected to all the others and hold the phone, so stay where you are and we’ll come to you. Call out if you see us.”

“Alright, Minho,” Chan said, “See you in a second. Be careful.”

“You too, hyung,” Minho hung up the phone and put it in his pocket, locking gazes with everyone else for a very short second, the group all taking a deep, simultaneous breath to help them calm down before they all scrambled up into a run.

Hands firmly connected, they frantically dragged each other along as they weaved in and out of the hordes of people, hurrying towards the flashing lights of the police cars. 

They waited until one of the emergency vehicles was fully in sight before bursting into screams of Chan, Changbin and Jisung’s names, heads whirring around in every direction as they shouted, intently trying to figure out where they were.

Their search had gone on for what felt like hours when a familiar voice caused them all to whip round.

“Minho!” Chan shouted, sprinting towards them with Changbin and Jisung on either side of him, pained but thankful expressions painted clearly on all their faces. 

Minho was overcome with emotion as he collided with Chan, strong arms immediately thrown over his shoulders and long curls tickling his neck as they pulled themselves against each other. 

To his right, Minho could vaguely see Hyunjin, Jisung and Jeongin flinging themselves into one another and spinning around as they embraced, shouting over the top of one another so loudly that Minho doubted there wasn’t anyone in a mile radius who couldn’t hear them.

Seungmin practically fell into the arms of Changbin, instantly stumbling forward to bury his face into Changbin’s chest, breathing heavily as he felt Changbin’s arms tighten around his back.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Seungmin mumbled into Changbin’s t-shirt, voice faintly laced with tears.

“I’m glad you’re okay too,” Changbin whispered back, pressing his nose against the side of Seungmin’s face before Chan practically forced Seungmin out of Changbin’s arms and pulled him into a firm embrace of his own.

Changbin allowed himself to listen to the content little giggle Seungmin let out from within Chan’s arms before quickly spinning away and running to wrap himself around Hyunjin.

Hyunjin immediately responded by hugging him back twice as hard and burying his nose into Changbin’s neck, tears dripping lightly into the soft skin. Changbin shushed him lowly and rubbed his back, attempting to reassure him that they were all safe.

He turned his head a little to catch sight of Jisung clinging to Minho like his life depended on it and Jeongin basically trying to force himself in between Seungmin and Chan, loudly demanding his own ‘koala cuddles’.

And who was Chan to deny Jeongin of anything he wanted? Within seconds, Jeongin had practically been engulfed by the leader and Seungmin laughed before going to take a firm hold on both Minho and Jisung, squeezing them with all his strength. 

They didn’t break apart for a few minutes, too content to just hold each other and revel in the fact that they were all alive, thoughts no longer on the formidable shots and terrible screams that had them fearing for each other’s lives. 

It was only when Chan began to keep track of who he was hugging that he came to a terrible realisation…

“Oh god!” he yelled, breaking out of the strong grip Hyunjin had somehow trapped him in and frantically spinning around, head whipping in all directions.

“Hyung?” Changbin spoke up, one hand still gently holding onto Jeongin’s wrist from where they had suddenly jumped apart at Chan’s actions, “What’s wrong?”

“Woojin and Felix!” Chan responded, swinging back round to face them with desperation shimmering darkly in his eyes, “Where are they?! Has anyone seen them?!”

Cold, hard dread thickly coated the air as everyone shook their heads, sharing panicked looks with each other as they suddenly realised they were a 7 and not a 9.

“Damnit!” Chan cursed, “We need to find them. Now.”

Chan’s entire body started to vibrate as he ran a hand through his hair and whipped around once more, prepared to fling himself into the crowd and tear in and out of the groups of people to find his missing members. The thoughts that he, Woojin and Felix had had that morning were racing a mile a minute through his head as a terrible feeling lodged itself deep in his gut. The fact that two of the members who had sensed what was going to happen were missing couldn’t be a coincidence. That very thought sent fright coursing through his veins and dread curling in his stomach. 

“Hyung!” Minho lunged forward and grabbed Chan’s wrist before he could take off, “Listen I know you’re worried about them, but they were only a floor up from you, right? They’re probably just in this crowd somewhere. Stay calm, alright?”

“Minho, you don’t understand!” Chan shouted, face contorted into absolute terror as he turned to the group again. Everyone flinched. Never had they ever seen such a look on their strong leader’s face. 

“D-don’t understand what, hyung?” Changbin managed to stutter out.

“Woojin, Felix and I all woke up with a bad feeling this morning,” Chan explained, voice loud and shaky, “It was like we knew this was going to happen or something. At first, we thought we were being stupid, but the moment I heard the shots I knew we were right.”

“Okay hyung,” Minho swallowed, eyes downcast as he tried to process the words, “And you think this… this bad feeling has something to do with how we haven’t found them yet?”

“I probably sensed this because I’m the leader and it’s my job to sense these things,” Chan said frantically, “What if they sensed it because… because they were the ones that were going to…”

Chan trailed off uncertainly, unable to put into words the awful things their missing members were vulnerable to at that moment. The entire group paled, still trying to process what they had just heard. The possibility of something happening to Woojin and Felix was now very, very real and the thought was enough to make them all want to throw up. 

“Right,” Seungmin’s tone was firm as he straightened up, catching them all off guard, “We need to find them. Now.”

“He’s right,” Changbin joined in, “They’re probably fine, even with what hyung described. We just need to find them to confirm that.”

Chan found himself becoming even more tense as he listened to them, knowing they’d never be able to understand the way he just knew that something had happened to Woojin and Felix. He couldn’t put the feeling into words, but he was 100% certain that he was right. So he was itching to run and find them, determined to fix the terrible situation he was sure they were trapped in. 

“I’m going to call Woojin-hyung,” Minho’s voice cut through Chan’s thoughts and he almost slapped himself in his stupidity. Phones! How could he forget that they could literally just call the others?!

Chan felt a hand hesitantly work its way into his as his breaths got faster and his body seemed more and more inclined on completely giving out on him. The fingers slowly playing with his own helped to ground him and he looked up to catch the wide eyes of Jisung. 

“It’s going to be okay, hyung,” Jisung said softly, “They’re going to be okay.”

Chan could only nod and squeeze Jisung’s hand harder, eyes still full of fear as he turned to face Minho who was trying to scroll through his contacts with shaking hands. Seungmin and Jeongin were either side of him, watching intently as he made his way down to ‘Woojin-hyung’.

Eventually, Minho’s vibrating fingers managed to land on the ‘call’ button and the entire group held their breaths as he carefully turned it on speaker.

Ring… ring…

The atmosphere thickened as the phone began to ring, silent prayers flying through the air as their hearts beat wildly for the unknown fates of the remaining members. 

Then suddenly…

BEEP!

Woojin had hung up on them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured that would be a fun place to leave you on.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter and thank you so much for reading! xx
> 
> Chapter 5 will be up in 2/3 days


	5. Desperation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neither of them had heard gunshots in a while, so they considered themselves relatively safe, but that didn’t mean they dared to speak in the oppressive silence they had coated themselves in, too oddly comforted by the distorted sense of safety it offered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> I hope you all had/are having an amazing day. Thank you so much for all the comments on chapter 4 and I hope you didn't find the wait for this chapter too stressful xx
> 
> So without further a do, here is chapter 5!
> 
> Enjoy xx

Both Woojin and Felix shook as they remained huddled together under the desk they had found in one of the empty offices.

Woojin no longer had Felix’s jacket pressed against his face, the blood flow now reduced to a slow, occasional trickle. But that didn’t mean the pain wasn’t still prominent and Woojin was trying desperately not to focus on the throbs of agony still reverberating powerfully through his skull. 

Felix had both arms wrapped around his stomach, face pressed into Woojin’s side as he tried to breathe through the throbbing pain in his ribs that the curled-up position was causing him. His sweat and tears soaked into Woojin’s t-shirt, but Woojin didn’t seem to mind too much as his thumb continued to rub small circles onto Felix’s shoulder, hoping the muscle would soon release its tension at the comforting action.

Neither of them had heard gunshots in a while, so they considered themselves relatively safe, but that didn’t mean they dared to speak in the oppressive silence they had coated themselves in, too oddly comforted by the distorted sense of safety it offered. 

The seconds crawled by like hours, time no longer having any meaning past the speed at which the blood was roaring in their ears and the way in which their heartbeats tried to force their way out of their chests. Felix’s hand suddenly moved from his stomach and came to wrap around Woojin’s bicep, grip slowly tightening as murky wisps of panic continued to filter into his mind.

Woojin had been about to pull Felix further into his side when sudden noises from above them made them both jump. It was the sound of footsteps making their way down the staircase towards the floor that Woojin and Felix were hiding on. Some of the footsteps sounded clumsy and scattered, like whoever was walking was stumbling or being dragged. Others sounded confident; confident in the way that they echoed ominously around the room and shuddered through the walls, sending chills down the spines of anyone unfortunate enough to hear them. 

It was clear what was happening. The gunmen were taking the upstairs hostages, most likely from the conference room, down to join the rest of them on the ground floor… and they were going to have to walk dangerously close to the desk Woojin and Felix were hiding under to get there. 

A childlike gasp drew Woojin out of his internal panic and he turned to look down at Felix, the boy looking devastatingly younger with his wide, tearful eyes and knees pulled up to his chest, pure fear corrupting his angelic and innocent personality that Woojin and every other member of Stray Kids had fallen in love with. 

It hurt. It hurt so bad to see Felix like this, to know that he had glass in his face and terror in his heart, to have been forced to watch him knock another man out because it had been the only way to protect his friend. No matter what happened now, there was always going to be a part of Felix that remembered how it felt to have fists in your face and boots on your ribs, your friend screaming on the floor next to you. There was always going to be a part of Felix that would never be a child again.

And Woojin… Woojin had lost a part of his innocence too. He had to fight off several men today; he had to stare down the barrel of a gun as it was pointed directly at him; he had to wipe rivers of blood off his face as his body covered him in it, pain ricocheting through his every nerve. 

And now he was hiding under a desk with a scared young boy tucked under his arm. He couldn’t believe they’d ended up like this. He couldn’t believe they’d sensed it all along and done nothing.

All that was left to do was hold each other and hope for an escape.

In the most comforting way he could manage with a broken nose, Woojin leaned down and pressed a kiss onto the top of Felix’s head, letting the side of his face remain buried in the soft locks. 

“Just stay quiet, okay?” Woojin whispered almost inaudibly, feeling Felix nod underneath him, “Just stay quiet and it’ll all be okay, I promise.”

Felix nodded again and snuggled further into Woojin’s side, wincing when the action sent more pain rippling through his stomach, but showing no sign of moving back anytime soon. Woojin softened as Felix continued to try and relax further into him, feeling inclined to add a few more words of reassurance. 

“If anything happens, remember I love you, okay?” Woojin whispered, pressing one last, soft kiss to Felix’s head as the younger practically melted against him.

“I love you too, hyung,” he whispered back, desperately trying to savour the last moment of peace they had before the footsteps got perilously close. 

Several people whimpered and the gunmen growled as Woojin and Felix listened to them making their journey across the floor, hearts breaking at not being able to help the poor people who were being taken.

Although they hated themselves for thinking it, the noise from the hostages was fortunately enough to drown out the sound of Woojin and Felix’s heavy breathing as the group slowly neared the desk. The two boys listened intently, palms sweating and hearts in their throats, as the people continued to make their way past, seemingly not even sparing a glance at Woojin and Felix’s hiding spot.

They stayed deadly still until most of the footsteps were completely out of earshot, only a couple of the gunmen who had remained at the back still left to exit onto the stairwell. Felix’s heart thumped as he was left thinking that maybe they were actually okay, maybe they had actually managed to make it through this particular ordeal unscathed, maybe the day was actually about to start going right for them. 

Then the sound of a ringtone cut shrilly through his thoughts and all optimism went out the window. 

Woojin jumped about a mile in the air, almost hitting his head on the top of the desk as fear and surprise coursed through his veins, his body frantically scrambling to reach the phone in which the ringtone was playing at full volume. A surprised shout from the other side of the room alerted him to how the gunmen had definitely heard and he desperately tried to reach his back pocket, adrenalin soaring through him and setting his every vein alight as he tired to ignore Felix’s twisted, panicked movements from beside him. 

The moment his fingers curled around the device, he hastily whipped it out and flipped the screen to face him, briefly registering Minho’s photo on the caller ID before desperately slamming the hang up button. 

But it was too late now. The music had been replaced by two sets of determined footsteps running straight towards them and Woojin felt his blood run cold.

Felix reacted immediately, throwing himself on top of Woojin and ignoring the flames of pain the movement caused him as he essentially forced Woojin to lie under him on the floor, shielding him from the gun he knew was about to appear under the desk, most likely followed by a man who wouldn’t hesitate to kill them. 

Felix was definitely starting to notice a pattern in their day because he was spot on.

The barrel of the gun was the first thing he saw and he was still terrified to stare directly into it, afraid of how close to death the machine brought him. 

“Get up!” the hard voice made them both jump and Felix reluctantly scrambled off Woojin, crawling out from under the desk and using it to hastily pull himself to his feet, not failing to notice the way the barrel of the gun followed him the whole time. 

Woojin did the same and now there was a second gun trained on him too, held by one of the two men wearing nothing but black with formidable, murderous looks dancing dangerously in their eyes.

Neither Woojin or Felix dared to move, breaths practically silent as they felt the gazes of the gunmen rake over them, questions appearing on the attackers’ faces when their eyes reached the blood and bruises the boys were covered in.

“Phones.” The hard voice was demanding and dangerous as the gunmen who had spoken held out a rough hand, “Now.”

Woojin and Felix didn’t even hesitate to both grab their phones and hand them over, admittedly not surprised but still jumping when both devices were slammed onto the ground and crushed under a boot.

Felix’s mind screamed as he listened to his phone crack and fall apart, thoughts of his family photos, of his texts with his mum, of his fun, little videos of his sisters racing through his mind as his precious memories were smashed to pieces like the broken glass that now littered the floor. He didn’t say anything though; too thankful it wasn’t him or Woojin that had been broken into bits.

“Both of you. Downstairs. Now.” The words were punctuated with a sharp jab to Woojin’s chest with the end one of the guns, prompting him to shakily turn around and begin to walk towards the staircase, too aware of the barrel pressed painfully into his back. 

His steps were small and unsteady as Felix stumbled slightly into his side, a small noise of pain leaving the younger’s lips as one hand automatically came to wrap around his ribs. 

In a small act of bravery, Woojin carefully clasped his other hand and laced their fingers together, feeling Felix’s sweaty palm stick to his but also a slight relief in the shaking of Felix’s hand. The gunmen snarled a little as the boys walked holding hands but didn’t stop them doing it as they continued to push them towards the stairs.

They managed to somehow stay on their feet until they finally reached the steps, Felix bracing himself for what he knew was going to be a painful walk down. 

Every step down made his body shake and ribs jar, the movement feeling like a thousand hot knives were burning into his lungs. He could only press his palm firmly into his mouth, muffling the harsh sobs and cries he desperately wanted to release as the gunmen kept pushing him from behind. 

It got to the point where he could barely feel Woojin’s hand desperately squeezing his own in a haphazard attempt at comfort when all of a sudden they were all stopped short by a rush of noise from downstairs.

There were more gunshots and shouts, noises that should have Woojin and Felix shaking and terrified, but these ones were different. The guns sound cleaner and more precise and the shouts no longer seemed murderous, rather determined and resolute, only a slight hint of anger recognisable in the indecipherable words. 

Several more screams rang out and suddenly more shots and voices joined the mix, a gnarled combination of violence and strength coating the air.

Felix could see enough through his tears to recognise the confused look Woojin threw at him and judging by the way he could hear the gunmen shuffling behind him, he was willing to guess that if he turned around, he’d see the confused looks on their faces too.

This was obviously not part of the plan.

But the gunmen didn’t seem to let it faze them for much longer as they suddenly shoved forward with matching growls and anger painted strikingly on their faces, yells leaving their mouths that the boys needed to move faster. 

They failed to do so, however, as the shove Felix had been given sent him doubled over with a stifled cry, hand ripping out of Woojin’s to clutch at the fabric of his own t-shirt as he pressed both fists forcefully into his abdomen, trying to relieve the indescribable agony he felt there. 

“We don’t have time for this. MOVE!” 

Felix barely registered the shout before he felt strong arms push into him from behind and he was suddenly forced off his feet, colliding vehemently with the unforgivable staircase before rolling jaggedly down to the bottom, the entire world going upside down and topsy turvy as his vision whitened with pain. He felt every bump, every bruise and every smack as he made his way down. Pathetic, small cries escaping him until the sickening snap of his wrist rang out and the cries were replaced with a single gut-wrenching scream. 

He landed in a heap at the bottom, body racked with pain and eyes burning with tears, chest heaving as he tried to cry out but the only noises manageable being wheezy, choked-up breaths. One hand was still wrapped around his stomach, the other lying broken next to him, throbbing in time with the red-hot ache in his head caused by its impact with the hard floor.

“FELIX!” Woojin screamed, veins turning to ice as he watched his friend make his descent to the floor. His heart pumped all the way into his throat as everything stopped to go in slow motion and Woojin listened with excruciating detail as one of Felix’s bones were broken, making him feel like he was about to throw up as he lunged forward, hysterically scrambling to reach his pained friend.

But he was cut off by a fierce yell and a direct punch to his broken nose, sending him reeling back to the floor. His world became nothing but pain. A guttural scream left his body as his back smacked against the floor, luckily landing against the banister so as not to send him rolling down the stairs after Felix. 

Another scream left him as the bones in his nose sent waves of fire roaring through his whole face, hands clawing at invisible air as he tried to cling to something, anything, that would bring him even the slightest bit of relief from the hurt contaminating his entire skull. 

Darkness began to enter his vision, the pull of unconsciousness attempting to lead him away as he desperately shook his head and struggled against the invisible force. 

He couldn’t pass out. He couldn’t protect Felix if he was unconscious. He had to stay awake. 

One last strangled scream left him before he jolted himself back to reality, the ceiling slowly becoming less blurry as he blinked from where he was laid on his back on the stairs, face still throbbing in agony.

A whispered, angry conversation gradually filtered into his ears as he stilled, ignoring the pain in his head as he carefully tried to look at the gunmen, both of whom were glaring at him and Felix with protruding looks of disgust. 

One of them locked eyes with Woojin and suddenly his face became nothing but pure fury, the attacker straightening up and marching a couple of stairs down to tower over him.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” he spat in Woojin’s face, Woojin almost falling down the stairs with the force at which he jumped, “WHAT KIND OF FREAK SHOW WAS THAT?!”

Woojin didn’t know how to answer, mouth unable to form the words as he stared at the gunman with half-closed eyes, body dangerously close to giving out on him altogether. 

The lack of response from Woojin only seemed to anger him more and Woojin winced at the pure, unadulterated ferocity he could see burning in the man’s eyes. What scared him more, however, was the calculated fury in the eyes of his partner-in-crime who had come to stand directly beside him. 

“You have to get up now.” The partner said, voice hard with steel, “If you don’t, he dies.”

The words hit Woojin like a brick as the attacker slowly brought up his gun and pointed it down at Felix with terrifying accuracy, psychopathic eyes clearly conveying that he was not afraid to shoot a broken, scared kid. 

Woojin’s world flipped upside down as he once again writhed on the floor, desperately trying to get his legs under him as terror washed fresh through his blood.

“No!” he screamed, body uncooperative and refusing to do as he said as he frantically tried to push himself up, doing everything and anything he could to merely try and get a foot under him. But nothing was working and Woojin watched the gunman’s finger slowly inch towards the trigger.

“NO, PLEASE!” Woojin was crying now, full-on sobbing as darkness continued to try and strangle him, unconsciousness once again trying to force him away as he desperately screamed at himself to get a grip, to get up, to get up now before his best friend ended up dead!

But there was nothing he could do, no way in which his body was going to listen to him, and he watched with pure fear as the attacker locked eyes with Felix’s limp form, a completely horrifying, blood-curdling look appearing on his features as he prepared to pull the trigger.

“NO!” Woojin screamed again, but the sound was drowned out by the unmistakable bang of a bullet leaving its gun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im really, really, really sorry...
> 
> ...Chapter 6 will come on Friday


	6. Confusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For a split second, there was nothing but silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!!
> 
> So, I am really, really sorry for the cliffhanger I left you on last chapter, but I do have very exciting news today... IT SNOWED!!! I love snow sooooo much and I can't even begin to explain how excited I am. It also means that college is cancelled for the day so I am wrapped in a blanket and huddled over my laptop, meaning I can post now instead of having to wait until after I got home.
> 
> I really hope you enjoy this chapter xx

Woojin’s entire world titled on its axis as the shout finished ripping itself from his throat, the sound accompanied by the gunman landing in a heap at his feet, a gruesome hole blown straight through his chest. 

A gag tore its way out of Woojin’s lips as he jolted down to the next step, entire body shaking as his brain cruelly replayed images of the dead body’s face. The dead body that could have been Felix if not for the policeman currently stood over the young boy, gun still smoking in his hand.

For a split second, there was nothing but silence. 

Nothing but silence as the policeman continued to stare calmly from where he was stood only inches from Felix’s barely conscious body. 

Nothing but silence as Woojin dug his fingernails roughly into his fists, desperately trying to get a grip on reality as he processed the horrible multitude of things that had occurred in just the past minute.

Nothing but silence as the still-alive gunman stared down at his fallen partner, face white and painted with shock as he remained there unmoving. 

For a split second, no one moved.

Then Felix let out a gut-wrenching sob from where he was still crumpled on the floor, head turned towards the staircase, eyes focused directly on the dead body sprawled out over several stairs, a small trail of blood slowly dripping its way down to the bottom.

Woojin wanted to cover the man’s blank face, to quickly wipe away all the blood with his sleeve to stop Felix staring at such a horror, but his body had stopped listening to him long ago and his limbs wouldn’t co-operate. He tried to throw Felix a reassuring look, but the younger was still hyper-focused on the god-awful sight before him.

“Drop your weapon. Now.”

The voice from the policeman caught them all off guard, tone laced with metal that pierced the air and sent them all reeling in temporary shock.

The policeman continued to stare blankly at the remaining gunman, weapon firm in his hands from where it was now trained on him, head tilting slightly as he gestured at the gun the attacker was still loosely holding in his hands. 

For a moment, it looked like the gunman was going to obey. But then he seemed to remember who he was and what he was doing and then his entire body suddenly hardened, eyes darkening with a storm of chaotic fury and gun wrenching violently upwards to land on the policeman.

The policeman didn’t even hesitate and before either Woojin and Felix had time to process the situation, another gunshot catapulted its way into the air. 

Woojin screamed and Felix whimpered at the sound, both flinching harshly when the second gunman’s body hit the floor, landing unsteadily on top of his partner before rolling a few stairs down and flopping limply over the edge of the last step, arms dangling like a rag doll. 

Woojin really did throw up this time, rolling over onto his front so as not to choke on it. 

The bile felt like hot acid in his throat as he wretched, entire body contorting and convulsing at the force at which his stomach was desperately trying to expel everything out. His nose continued to burn with pain as his face scrunched up, unforgiving chokes still racking his entire frame. 

For a while, his world became nothing but pain, trauma and throwing up. All other sights and sounds were drowned out by the complete and utter anguish that cut deep into his very soul. 

It took him several minutes to stop gagging, body still making him wretch even after his stomach had emptied. He gradually came to awareness to the feeling of an unfamiliar hand rubbing his back, palm gently grazing over the fabric of his t-shirt as he sucked in a deep, soothing breath, licking his lips to try and relieve the dryness there. 

He eventually worked up the strength to be able to turn his head to find out whose hand it was on his back and he was surprised to momentarily lock eyes with the policeman. 

For a fateful second, all Woojin could see was the man who had shot two people in front of him and he scrambled backwards fearfully. Images of the policeman holding a smoking gun forced their way into his mind as he frantically tried to get away, brain screaming at him that he needed to escape the evil in front of him. But the hands that landed on his shoulders were comforting, not cold, and Woojin was able to pause long enough in his panic to breathe properly. He had to remind himself that this was the man who had saved him and Felix.

This was the man who had been forced to kill two people to keep Woojin and Felix alive.

This was the reason Felix, and possibly Woojin, were still alive.

The thought sent electricity crackling through Woojin’s veins as he was suddenly overwhelmed by guilt. This was how he re-paid the man who had just saved his life, this was how he re-paid the man who was probably just as traumatised as he was, but too brave to show it.

“S-Sorry,” Woojin stuttered out, breaths gradually stabilising back to normal as he brought his eyes up to the policeman’s face. 

“You don’t need to apologise,” the policeman’s voice was comforting as he gently squeezed Woojin’s shoulders, “You don’t need to be afraid anymore, you’re safe now.”

“What-what about…” Woojin tried to stutter out a question as he whipped his head to the side, suddenly very, very aware of how he didn’t know whether Felix was safe or not.

“Your friend is safe too,” once again the policeman’s voice brought Woojin down from his panic, “He’s just down there, see?”

Woojin followed the policeman’s point down to where Felix had been propped up against the wall at the bottom of the stairs. One hand hung limply by his side and the other was draped over his stomach. Bruises shone starkly on his skin and his posture was tight with pain, but he still managed a small, exhausted smile when he noticed Woojin looking at him. The expression did little to hide the suffering still prominent in his eyes, but Woojin softened at it all the same.

“Everyone else is safe too,” the policeman continued to explain, Woojin tearing his eyes away from Felix to look at the man again, eager to hear the explanation, “The gunmen were severely outnumbered against us and we’ve secured the whole building. We’re just conducting a search now, checking that there’s no one left who needs help like you.”

“I’m glad you got here when you did,” Woojin breathed out as he realised just how close they had come to death and how terribly lucky they were to be alive.

“So am I,” the policeman responded immediately, sincerity clear in his eyes.

Woojin nodded gratefully at the words, sharing a relieved look with Felix who the policeman had also directed his words to, voice loud enough to be heard from the bottom of the stairs. Woojin allowed the reassurance to filter into his mind for a few seconds before opening his mouth to ask a question he was almost afraid to know the answer to.

“Were there any deaths? Of civilians I mean?” his voice was quiet, but he knew Felix had heard it when the younger whipped his head up, eyes locked on the policeman whose face lit up with a tired smile.

“Luckily, we think that the criminals were after money and attention more than they were people’s lives,” he answered, “There were no civilian deaths.”

An overwhelming sense of happiness flooded through Woojin at the words and he slumped in his position, finally able to release all the tension trapped inside of him from the horrible day he had just had. Only one prominent worry remained, biting at the back of his mind, demanding to not be ignored; he needed to know the other members were okay.

He knew that due to the structure of the building and the locations that the gunmen had decided to target, it was definitely him and Felix that had been the unlikely ones. The other members had most likely been able to get out safely, Woojin could even remember one of them calling him at one point. But he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop worrying about them until he had them in front of him again, until he was able to hold them all in his arms.

“I’m going to call for back up now,” the policeman’s voice cut through his thoughts, “They’ll help me get you and your friend out of here.” The policeman’s face crinkled a little in thought for a second before he seemed to decide something and spoke again, “Can you tell me your name?”

“I’m Woojin,” Woojin answered, “And that’s Felix.” He gestured to Felix at the bottom of the stairs, only just noticing how he seemed to be looking a little worse. Woojin wasn’t surprised; Felix’s body and mind had been put through a lot that day and Woojin now knew better than anyone that adrenalin could only last so long. Woojin himself was ready to collapse, he couldn’t imagine how Felix, who had literally fought off someone twice his size and been pushed down the stairs all in a very short space of time, was feeling.

“Okay, Woojin,” the policeman replied kindly, eyes firmly on Felix as he also seemed to notice the young boy’s paling face and gradually slumping posture, “We’re going to get you and Felix out now.”

Woojin nodded as the policeman gradually tugged Woojin’s arm over his shoulder and helped him to a standing position. Dizziness hit him the moment he was lifted and his legs almost buckled, but the policeman’s grip was strong and he was able to stay up long enough to take a couple of deep breaths and wait for the disorientation to pass.

Their journey down the steps was slow and Woojin’s body only got more uncooperative the further they got, but the policeman was determined not to let him go and they made it down to the bottom relatively unscathed. 

By this point Woojin was able to mostly ignore the unsteadiness in his feet and he darted out of the policeman’s arms the moment they were back on level ground and managed the last few quick steps towards Felix on his own. A panicked protest spluttered immediately from the policeman but Woojin ignored it as he slumped down onto his stomach next to Felix, a sigh escaping his lips.

Felix immediately turned to face him and it was then that Woojin noticed how prominent the pain lines were on his face. Felix had a thick coat of sweat lining his forehead that was slowly dripping down onto his eyes and freckles and his breaths were short and fast, sounding raw as they exited jaggedly through his busted ribs. He tried to smile at Woojin when the other landed next to him, but the gesture didn’t quite reach his eyes and the slight wince that came with it definitely didn’t go unnoticed. 

“Hey Lix,” Woojin said softly to try and comfort him, reaching out to gently tug Felix’s uninjured hand from where it was fisting the part of his t-shirt that covered his stomach, grip so tight that his knuckles had gone white. 

His grip instantly re-tightened on Woojin’s hand the moment the elder tried to hold it, but Woojin didn’t mind. In fact, he was happy to take it if it meant Felix got even the slightest bit of reprieve from the pain he was currently feeling. 

“H-hi hyung,” Felix managed to choke out, grimacing when his body spasmed from the pain that came from talking. Woojin frowned at the action and squeezed Felix’s hand, barely noticing how the policeman had walked a few feet away to speak pointedly into a walkie talkie.

“Don’t try to talk, okay?” Woojin said gently, “Just hold on. The policeman’s getting back-up and then they’ll get you to a doctor who will take the pain away, okay?”

Felix just nodded, closing his eyes and letting his head thump back against the wall behind him, trying to focus on nothing but Woojin’s soothing voice and the way he was carefully using his thumb to rub small circles onto the back of his hand. 

He zoned out for a few minutes, teetering precariously on the edge of unconsciousness as he allowed his mind to take him away to avoid the pain and fear he was still feeling. Darkness pulled at the edge of his vision, but he could still hear Woojin humming softly beside him, reminding him that he was still awake, that he was still safe, that he was still alive. 

He was still alive.

He had survived.

He could still remember the feeling of disbelief that had swamped him when the bullet had smashed the glass near his face, the feeling of pure, unfiltered terror when Woojin’s phone rang and he had heard the gunmen approaching, the feeling of icy dread when one of the attackers had pointed his gun directly at him , loudly proclaiming that Felix was going to die if Woojin didn’t get up. 

Felix had really thought that he had reached the end then. He could clearly see that there was no way Woojin would be able to get up and he was not so delirious that he could miss how steadily the gun was trained on him. He really thought that that was it, that he was going to die right there.

The feeling had paralysed him, completely overwhelmed him to the point that all he could do was stare… stare down the barrel of the machine that was going to take everything away from him. He had thought of his family, he had thought of his members, he had thought of everything Stray Kids had left to do and how he wouldn’t be a part of it anymore. But most of all, he had thought of the panicked screams he could hear erupting from Woojin and he’d hoped, he’d hoped with everything he had, that Woojin wouldn’t blame himself. He wanted to die knowing that every member was as physically and mentally safe as they could be, Woojin taking that weight upon himself would not be fulfilling his wish. 

But then a pair of boots had appeared in front of him and the resounding gunshot had resulted in the death of the gunman, not the death of Felix.

Time had sped up after that, a blur of more death, someone throwing up and a confusing feeling of comfort that came with being helped to lean against the wall. 

It had been terrifying, traumatising and horrific… but he had survived it. He had survived it. And now he and Woojin were going to go home and hopefully fall into the loving arms of their members. 

He couldn’t imagine anything better. 

He was slowly pulled back to complete consciousness by Woojin gently calling his name and Felix opened his eyes to see a different policeman leaning over him. Felix’s face morphed into an expression of confusion, but he didn’t have the coherence to voice his questions. 

“Hello Felix,” the policeman said gently and Felix briefly wondered how the policeman knew his name before deciding that it didn’t really matter, whimpering a little in response as a soft look of sympathy appeared in the policeman’s eyes.

“It’s alright, Felix. I’m here to help you. We’re going to get you onto a stretcher and then we’re going to get you into an ambulance, okay?” Felix heard the gentle voice again and he nodded to show he understood. He noticed Woojin’s hand slipping from his own but the sharp breath of panic he let out at the action was calmed down by a warm hand on his shoulder. 

“Don’t worry, Felix. We’re just getting Woojin onto a stretcher too. He’s safe, okay? You’re both safe.” Felix instantly calmed at the words and he nodded again, taking a deep breath.

“Alright, we’re going to move you now. Just try and stay calm for us, you’re doing so well.” The policeman continued and Felix braced himself, thinking he was ready for the onslaught of pain that he knew movement was going to bring him.

The first gentle tug on him revealed that he was definitely not ready at all and he briefly registered the choked cry of pain he let out before the entire world faded to black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys didn't really think I would kill Felix, did you? I couldn't ever, I love that kid too much.
> 
> I know we've had two Woolix-centred chapters in a row now so I'm sorry if you're bored with their storyline, I just thought it might actually be torture if I left you guys on that cliffhanger any longer. 
> 
> Don't worry, we'll be catching up with the rest of the group in the next chaper which will either come out on Monday or Tuesday.
> 
> If it's also snowing where you live, or if it's just as cold, then please remember to wrap up warm and stay safe. The roads are really icy and I don't want anyone getting sick.


	7. Anxiety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The confusion between them only worsened, crackling in the air like electricity as they all unknowingly huddled closer to one another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all :)
> 
> Welcome to chapter 7! After this chapter, there's only two more to go and I honestly don't know what I'll do with myself once this is all over. It's going to feel weird not writing or editing this story anymore. 
> 
> In this chapter we will be catching up with the rest of the group so I hope you enjoy xx

“What the…?” Minho stuttered, staring down at the phone like it had just tried to bite him, “Hyung hung up! Why the hell would he hang up?!”

The entire group looked on in shock, unable to form the words to convey that they had absolutely no idea what would motivate their fellow member to hang up on them at a time like this. A million scenarios played their way through their heads, each one deadlier than the last, their minds trying to convince them that Woojin and Felix were hurt, that Woojin and Felix needed help, that Woojin and Felix were dead…

Some of them tried to hide the distress that was tormenting their brains. But they all knew each other so well, reading each other came easy to them now. They were all terrified out of their minds and confused beyond belief. But it wasn’t a surprise… not in the least. Two of them were still missing; that would always be enough to send them all into a downward spiral of dread.

“I can understand them not answering if something has happened,” Minho continued, tone frantic and demanding as he gestured wildly, desperate for some kind of explanation, “But hanging up?! What the hell would make them hang up?!”

The confusion between them only worsened, crackling in the air like electricity as they all unknowingly huddled closer to one another. Chan and Jisung were pressed against each other, hands still linked in the middle of them, Jisung’s other hand had come to cling to Chan’s bicep and Chan’s free hand was gently stroking over his knuckles, barely noticing the slight pain from how hard Jisung was gripping him. Hyunjin’s hand was on Chan’s other shoulder, the one that Jisung wasn’t pressed against, and his other hand was being clung to by all ten of Changbin’s fingers. Seungmin had practically draped himself over Changbin, breathing directly into his neck as he used the hand that was closer to Minho to cling to the elder’s shirt. Minho was still staring down at the phone but hadn’t failed to notice how Jeongin had his chin digging to Minho’s shoulder, just like Minho had done to him that morning when he was teasing the maknae about how cute he was going to look doing the new choreography. God… that seemed so long ago now. 

To complete the circle, Jeongin was also shoulder-to-shoulder with Jisung, whimpering quietly whenever one of them moved slightly and the contact between them was broken. The touch was only small, but it was grounding, and they needed the small reminder that they were both okay, that they hadn’t lost each other in the storm that was today.

“I-I don’t know, hyung,” Changbin took it upon himself to answer Minho, whose eyes were growing more and more anxious the longer the silence between them stretched on, “But it means he’s alive, so we all need to stay calm, okay?”

“Stay calm?!” Minho almost exploded, Seungmin and Jeongin flinching as they were almost thrown off him, “If Woojin-hyung was safe, he would have answered! This could mean anything, but it definitely means that something’s up!”

“And we’re not going to be any help to him if we panic!” Chan retorted back, voice not raising higher than its usual volume, but still full of conviction, “Just stay calm. We will figure this out.”

Minho locked eyes with Chan and, for a second, a morbid kind of power crackled forebodingly between them. Minho looked like he was about to pounce, terror and devastation written dangerously in his eyes and controlling his every action. Minho hated not knowing. He needed to know what had happened to the others. He needed to know that they were okay. And the fact that he had no idea about any of this frustrated and worried him to no end. For a perilous second it looked like this anguish was going to make him lunge at Chan, needing a release from all the anxiety swirling around within him. 

But then Seungmin’s grip tightened on his shirt and Minho seemed to remember where he was, body deflating and guilt overwhelming him as he realised what he had been prepared to do. He buried his face in his hand and forced himself to take a deep, forceful breath, an attempt to stabilise his rapidly beating heart. 

“I-I’m sorry, hyung,” he stuttered out, “I’ll try to stay calm, I promise.”

“Don’t apologise,” Chan instantly responded, a small semblance of comfort laced into his ‘leader voice’, “I get it, okay? We’re all worried about them, but they’re going to be fine. They’re both strong and capable, they know how to take care of themselves.”

Minho just nodded, eyes still downcast. Seungmin moved from where he was draped over Changbin and draped himself over Minho instead, gently squeezing his shoulders a little. Tilting his head up, Minho locked eyes with him for a second and drew courage from the brave look Seungmin was trying to put on. 

“Do you think… do you think we should try and call Felix?” Hyunjin’s hesitant question had all heads turning to him and he squirmed a little at all the attention, not wanting to cause more tension amongst the group. 

“I don’t know…” Jisung answered a little shakily, “Woojin-hyung must have had a reason for hanging up…”

“Yeah I agree,” Seungmin added, “From what we know, Woojin-hyung and Felix should be together. Whatever reason they had to hang up, it must have been a good one. We all know they’re both too nice to ever want to worry us, so we have to trust that they will come to us the moment they are able to.”

“I really hope they are together like you said,” Jeongin said quietly from where his head was almost entirely hidden in Minho’s shoulder, “I wouldn’t want either of them to be alone right now.”

“Me neither,” Chan replied, “But you know what those two are like. Woojin cares about all of us so much and Felix is extremely clingy, they’d never want to leave any of us alone in a situation like this. If they can help it, they’ll stick together.”

“They’ll probably actively go out of their way to protect each other,” Changbin added.

“Without a doubt,” Chan confirmed with a nod, “They’ll keep each other safe. They’ll be completely fine.”

The entire group nodded at the words and fell into a worried silence, completely lost as to what to do next. The crowd seemed to be the same; they were all the lucky ones who had gotten out, but they now had nowhere to go, no one to ask what was going on and no one to turn to as they waited to hear about the fate of the unlucky ones. No one dared to disturb the police and no one dared to re-enter the building, too afraid of endangering the ones who were trapped inside.

A disturbed atmosphere coated them as they all stood around, still racking their brains for what was supposed to happen now. There was no set of instructions for what to do after you had escaped an infiltrated building, no handbook that you could read to tell you how to act when some of the people you loved most in the world could be dead.

All they could do now was wait and it was the most worrying, terrifying thing they could imagine, being able to do nothing whilst unimaginable suffering was happening just through the wall next to them. 

Things began to get worse; numerous news vans and helicopters started to show up, lights flashing and noise unbearable, piercing the quiet atmosphere with chaos and upset. Presenters frantically tried to explain what was happening to large cameras that pushed uncaringly through the crowd.

Chan and the group unconsciously shrank away. It seemed so wrong filming such an awful event and projecting it to the rest of the world. 

They also had a very real fear of being recognised, of people noticing that there were two of them missing from their group and asking them questions that they were unable to answer, asking them questions that they wished they knew the answer to. They could practically hear the questions now:

“Where’s Woojin?”

“Where’s Felix?

“Are they okay?”

“Are they hurt?”

“Are they alive?”

“Didn’t you try to protect them?”

The truth was… they didn’t know. They didn’t know where Woojin was. They didn’t know where Felix was. They didn’t know if they were okay. They didn’t know if they were hurt. They didn’t know if they were even alive. And they wished with everything they had that they had been able to protect them.

The crowd had also been shaken up by the sudden news disturbance and Chan could practically taste the the tension in the atmosphere. He unconsciously pulled his group closer to him and tried to re-direct them away from as many cameras as possible, encouraging them to duck their heads or hide their faces in each other to minimise the chances of a news presenter recognising them and forcing their camera in their faces.

“Just stay calm, alright everyone?” Chan whispered, feeling Jisung nod unsteadily into his shoulder and bringing a hand up to tangle comfortingly in his hair. He felt tears drip onto his shoulder slightly and his heart broke at the feeling. Jisung crying was always a devastating sight to see and he knew he wouldn’t need to lift his head to know that there would be other members crying as well. He tried to tell himself that he had done all he could, that everything that was happening now was all out of his hands, but he couldn’t help but feel completely helpless at not being able to help his members more, at not being able to protect them from all the horrors that had pounced on them today.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by a hand gently shaking his wrist and he looked up enough to spot Hyunjin staring anxiously at all the police cars to the right of them.

“Hy-Hyung look,” Hyunjin whispered as Chan followed his gaze to spot the policemen all lining up, determined and undaunted looks painted on the parts of their faces he could see under the helmets they were wearing.

“They’re getting ready to do something,” Chan whispered back and Hyunjin nodded, everyone else in the group picking up at the words and also turning to peer at the policemen.

“Do you think they’re going to go in and try and rescue everyone?” Seungmin asked.

“I don’t know,” Chan answered honestly, “I hope so.”

They all jumped when a forceful shout echoed through the air and suddenly all of the policemen were running… running directly into the building with shields up and guns loaded, bravery and courage oozing from their straightened postures.

“Oh my god,” Jisung whispered, eyes locked on one of the doors they were all flooding in.

The entire group hummed in agreement, trying to see what was happening as well as they could without revealing their faces too much, still paranoid about the increasing number of news cameras that were dotted around. The presenters had all gotten louder at the actions of the policemen, almost yelling to the cameras about how something was happening and how they thought the police were ready to strike. 

The words felt like rocks in Chan’s stomach. He tried to ignore how the presenters were all making this out to be some sort of exciting action movie they went to see at the cinema and not a real-life situation that might actually be costing people their lives. 

The discomfort he was feeling was prominent among the other members as well and he couldn’t help but notice how a few of them had gotten paler; the policemen going into the building was good as it meant there was a rescue in operation, but it also meant more guns and conflict. And more guns and conflict meant significantly more danger. 

Changbin was about to open his mouth to offer his own words of comfort, when suddenly he felt Seungmin being tugged away to the right of him. He whipped round, prepared to actually punch the person who had dared touch his bandmate, but stopped short when he realised it was their manager, an urgent look painted on the man’s face.

Changbin sucked in a breath at the sight of him, trying to alleviate the sudden rush of fear and adrenalin he had felt at Seungmin being pulled away from him. He heard Minho next to him doing the same, it was evident that the day had instilled endless amounts of paranoia into them and they had both imagined the worst at the feeling of Seungmin’s arms being snatched out of their own.

“We need to get you all out of here now,” The manager acknowledged their panic with a small, apologetic smile but didn’t hesitate to speak, “I know you’re all worried, but you can’t stay here. We have two cars ready for you.”

“What?!” Chan exclaimed, eyes suddenly alight with a terrified kind of anger, “Woojin and Felix are still missing! You can’t expect us to leave them!”

“Chan, please trust me when I say I have numerous people trying to figure out their whereabouts and making sure they are safe,” the manager explained quickly, “You know how much I care about them, so you know I’d never want to leave them. We’re doing everything we can to find them and we’ll get them to you as soon as we can.”

“No!” Minho joined in, “We’re not leaving here without them.”

“Listen,” the manager sighed, “I know how you feel. Trust me, I do. But you being recognised in a situation like this is dangerous. We need to get you all out.”

“Do you know what else is dangerous?!” Changbin joined in, almost shouting, “Woojin-hyung and Felix trapped somewhere we can’t help them!”

The manager flinched at that, slowly reaching out the hand that wasn’t gently rested on Seungmin’s shoulder and using it to lightly squeeze Changbin’s, not surprised when Changbin forcefully brushed him off.

“Changbin, if the news cameras or anyone else sees you right now there will be questions,” he said gently, “Questions that may be traumatic or impossible to answer. We want to try and protect you from that. We want to get you to the dorm as soon as possible.”

“But Woojin-hyung and Felix won’t be there,” Jisung spoke up quietly from the side, voice shaky and scared enough to help quell the anger of Chan, Changbin and Minho. The last thing they wanted to do was scare their younger members further. The manager visibly softened at the words and leaned down so he was eye-level with Jisung.

“I know they won’t,” he said softly, “But I promise you that we are doing absolutely everything we can do to find them. And when we do we will do whatever we can to make sure that they’re okay.”

Jisung nodded, appreciating how the manager said ‘when’ they found Woojin and Felix, not ‘if’. The rest of the group were also admittedly comforted by the choice of words, but not all of them were convinced. The manager could see this, he knew how to read his boys and even though he hated what he was about to do, he knew it was necessary.

“Woojin and Felix would want you to be safe too,” he said evenly, “And I can’t guarantee that safety if you stay here, so please come with me.”

Chan whipped his head up at the words, eyes ablaze with fire. He couldn’t believe that their manager would try and use that against them, that their manager would twist Woojin and Felix’s feelings into an argument to get them all to do what he wanted. But, deep down, even though Chan hated to admit it, he knew that the manager was right. Woojin and Felix would want them to be safe, and Chan was willing to do anything for them in that moment.

“Okay,” Chan said, tone firm, “But the moment, and I mean the very moment, that you hear something about them then you tell us about it, got it?”

“Of course,” the manager said unflinchingly, “You will be the first to know.”

“Good.” Chan said, “Then we’ll go.”

Minho and Changbin didn’t look happy about it, and Hyunjin, Jisung, Seungmin and Jeongin still looked scared, but they nodded all the same. They took the face masks that the manager handed them and wrapped them around the bottom parts of their faces, pulling up their hoods and lowering their caps to help hide the top. Those that didn’t have a cap or a hood were pulled into the side of someone else so they could bury their face into their shoulder.

It would never be enough to completely stop them being recognised, but it would hopefully convey to people that they were to be left alone, and they were not available to be questioned. 

The manager led them confidently through the hordes of people, holding onto the arm of Seungmin who held on to Changbin who held on to Minho and so on and so forth. It was a strong chain and they refused to let it be broken, Chan at the back making sure no one was pulled away. 

They made it to the cars with only a few cameras pointed in their faces and they looked nervously at each other at the thought of having to separate. Rationally, they knew that seven of them would never have been able to fit in a single car, but some hopeful part of them had prayed that they would be able to remain together.

Chan sensed the group’s distress and, hoping to help alleviate some of their disress, stepped forward in between Jisung and Jeongin and looped an arm around both of their shoulders.

“Jisung, Jeongin,” he said softly, “Do you want to ride with me?”

The two nodded eagerly and Chan squeezed their shoulders in response before looking at up at the rest of the group.

“Will you guys be alright in the other car?” he asked, smiling when they nodded. Changbin quickly threaded an arm through Hyunjin’s and Chan instantly knew that their bond would be enough to keep them calm. Seungmin and Minho also looked reassured, and Chan knew he could trust them enough to protect each other.

“Alright,” he said, “We’ll see you back at the dorm soon.”

“We will,” Minho agreed, “Just call us if you hear anything, okay?”

“Without a doubt,” Chan responded, not missing a beat, “Stay safe, yeah?”

“And you,” Changbin responded, “See you soon.”

With that they all turned and walked over to their respective cars, Minho helping Seungmin to sit down and making sure Changbin and Hyunjin were also seated before closing all the doors for them. Chan did the same with Jisung and Jeongin and soon they were all ready to go, trying not to think about the two empty seats that their other members were supposed to fill.

The car rides were mostly silent, everyone having too many things to think about to try and make any type of conversation. They still held each other’s hands and retained as much skin-to-skin contact as they could, but they knew there was no point trying to verbally comfort each other anymore, the only thing left that would really bring them true comfort was the guaranteed safety of the two familiar people still missing from their presence.

So they reluctantly carried on home, praying desperately in their minds that everything would work out for all of them in the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that was chapter 7! I hope you enjoyed xx
> 
> A little birdie told me that next chapter we may or may not be getting a little reunion between the members, so I hope you're all excited for that.
> 
> Speaking of which, the next update will come on Thursday. Until then, I hope you have a great week <3


	8. Relief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And a nine they became.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all, welcome to chapter 8!
> 
> The second-to-last chapter, I am definitely going to be sad to see this story go. Providing I don't get carried away editing the final update, this is actually going to be the longest chapter in the fic. It actually could have easily been split into two chapters, but I like it like this so I decided to just leave it.
> 
> Also right now in Korea it's actually Jeongin's 18th birthday, so a very happy birthday to him!! That maknae was literally born three days before I was and I am still salty about it.
> 
> Anyway, on with the story.
> 
> Enjoy!! xx

Woojin and Felix were still missing.

The thought echoed menacingly through their heads, teasing and taunting them as they all desperately tried to ignore it. They craved something else to focus on, something else to think about whilst they waited. But every time someone tried to initiate conversation, every time Chan motioned at them to focus on the TV, every time Minho placed a hot drink in front of them, they found their minds wondering back to their still absent members. 

They were spread out around the dorm’s living room, some of them holding each other on the sofas whilst others laid themselves out on the floor. Usually, the only other times they would get to all lie around together like this was in the middle of the night after they’d been busy all day and their managers sent them home to get some sleep. But being teenage boys and craving some normality, they’d go home and watch a movie together, unable to explain the backaches and popcorn stuck to their faces in the morning when they all fell asleep half way through. 

There was usually not so much shuffling when they had movie nights, but this wasn’t a movie night and the unsettling day had jarred them. No position felt comfortable and the members kept swapping seats and changing who they were lying against, praying for some kind of relief from the discomfort and trauma that was still itching under their skin.

Jeongin had put the news on and, despite the absolute fear that watching it caused them, none of them could bring themselves to turn it off. They flinched every time a gunshot played through the screen and some of them had to cover their ears whenever a presenter talked about the injuries that had occurred or the amount of people that were still missing. But there was a small, unlikely chance that they might be able to see Woojin or Felix, so none of them stopped watching. 

Every now and again, one of them would pull out their phones and open twitter. The shooting at the JYP building was now trending No. 1 and numerous news sites and ordinary people who were still at the building were posting photos and updates that were a little more recent than what the presenters were talking about on the TV. 

Occasionally, just scrolling through all the tweets about the shooting got too frustrating and then someone would type Woojin or Felix’s name into the twitter search bar, reading all the recent tweets that contained one of the boys’ names, hoping that if they were spotted then people might tweet about it. 

Unfortunately, they had no luck.

So, they just went back to biting their nails and letting the tea Minho made them go cold, stomachs too in knots to consider drinking it. Their gazes never left the TV and the longer they went without any news of their missing members, the worse they felt. 

“What do you think actually happened to them?” Hyunjin’s monotone voice cut heavily through the silence, all heads turning slowly in his direction.

“What do you mean, Hyunjinnie?” Chan asked, not knowing exactly what Hyunjin was asking.

“They didn’t make it outside like the rest of us,” Hyunjin answered quietly, “What do you think could have happened that meant they couldn’t get out? And again… why on Earth would they hang up on us?”

The entire group stopped to think at the questions. It was a train of thought they’d been determined not to let themselves go down due to how it only led to all the horrible scenarios that their bandmates could be trapped in playing over in their heads. But Hyunjin’s tone of voice revealed that he was already too deep down that particular rabbit hole to pull himself out, and he needed the comfort and rationality of the other members to wind him back to reality. 

“They were on a higher floor than all of us,” Seungmin tried to answer, an uncertain edge lacing his words, “Do you think that could have something to do with it?”

“It means they would have been more likely to get stuck somewhere trying to get out,” Chan said as his eyes diverted between Hyunjin and Seungmin, hating the defeat and worry in both of their postures, “That doesn’t mean they weren’t safe. The building is huge, there are many places they could have gone to hide and been completely fine.”

“I know, but…” Hyunjin tried to protest, but his voice trailed off and he looked away, swallowing heavily against the lump in his throat.

“But what?” Chan prompted gently, sitting up a little as the tape that was holding Hyunjin together seemed to be slowly peeling away.

“What if something bad happened?” Hyunjin whispered, “There were gunmen in that building. Gunmen who were willing to shoot. I know everyone was saying that there didn’t appear to any deaths, but what if that was wrong? What if Woojin-hyung and Felix will be the first to be…?”

Hyunjin cut himself off before the words ‘found dead’ could leave his mouth, not physically able to say that there was possibility of permanently losing two members. He slapped a hand over his mouth and took a deep, shuddering breath, overwhelmed by the sobs that were trying to force their way out of him. 

Changbin and Seungmin, who were sitting either side of him, both whipped around at the crack in Hyunjin’s voice and they quickly pulled him against them, softly rubbing his shoulders and stroking his hair as small cries racked his frame.

“You know just as well as I do that those two would never let that happen,” Changbin whispered loud enough for the whole room to hear, “Both of them love each other, and us, so much and they would never let something bad happen to the other. They’re going to protect each other, Hyunjinnie.”

“And you know they’re both so strong,” Seungmin added, “They can both fight like hell and are incredibly smart. They’ll get themselves out, you know they will.”

Hyunjin nodded from where his face was still pressed into Changbin’s chest, tears staining the older boy’s shirt. Small sniffles still left him, but the sobbing seemed to have stopped and the entire room breathed a small sigh of relief. Jeongin and Jisung carefully wiped away the tears that had appeared on their own faces and were pulled further into the embraces that Chan and Minho had engulfed them in, small smiles able to grace their lips for just a second. 

They fell back into the silence for a few more minutes, still intently focused on the lack of progress that came from the TV and twitter but still sat significantly closer to each other than before. Some of them even managed to take sips of their tea, uncaring of how it was now lukewarm and unpleasant to drink.

Jisung was scrolling mindlessly through twitter, no longer expecting anything hopeful to appear on the timeline, when suddenly his eyes fell upon a picture that tore a shout out his throat. His voice echoed through the air at the exact same time Chan’s phone started ringing.

“Oh my god!”

Ring!

Chan’s hand flew to his pocket and his eyes snapped to Jisung, gaze flicking hastily between the two as his brain immediately scrambled, unable to decide whether to question Jisung or answer the call. The entire group had jumped at the sudden rush of noise and Minho was ready to lunge forward to catch Jisung who looked halfway between about to collapse and about to launch himself off the sofa at a hundred miles an hour.

Jisung’s eyes lifted quickly from his phone to stare at Chan and the device ringing from his pocket, another noise of surprise left his mouth before he quickly shook himself and gestured to Chan, signalling at the leader to answer. His entire body was vibrating with his discovery and the need he had to show it to the group, but he didn’t want them to miss a call from their manager, especially when he knew what was at stake.

Chan had the phone out of his pocket in a flash and he was flooded with an immediate frenzy of dread and relief when he saw that it was the manager calling. He sent a worried look to the rest of the group before answering it and putting the phone on speaker, volume as loud as it could go so that the entire room could hear.

“Hello,” he said worriedly, and the entire group crowded around to listen, Jisung still clutching his own phone firmly in his hand.

“Chan,” the manager’s voice was urgent, “We’ve got them.” 

Strangled chokes of relief echoed throughout the room and several of them doubled over and sank to the floor, extreme levels of tension leaving them in a dizzy, overwhelming rush. 

Woojin and Felix had been found. 

Woojin and Felix were alive.

“Oh my god,” Chan managed to get out, “Oh my freakin’ god. What happened? Are they okay? Please tell me they’re okay.”

“I hate to be the one to tell you this, but they’re on their way to the hospital,” the manager got straight to the point and the words caused all the boys to suck the tension right back into their bodies, backs immediately straightening and shock and surprise coating all their faces except Jisung’s. 

Hospital.

Their members were in the hospital. The very same members who had been trapped in a building with multiple gunmen. The possibilities of what could have happened to them were endless and the tension in the room got so thick they were practically choking on it, a million awful scenarios playing uncontrollably through their heads.

“Hospital?!” Chan was shouting, “Is it bad? Were they shot? Are they going to be okay?”

The questions flew out of him rapidly, practically dragged out of his mouth by the extreme love and care he held for his members, by the extreme fear he had of losing them. The word ‘hospital’ sent a fresh wave of terror flying through him and he couldn’t get his responses out fast enough, even with the years of experience he had at rapping. Talking fast had always been natural to him, so why wasn’t he able to get his words out fast enough now?

“Neither of them were shot,” the words from the manager sent prevailing relief flying through him and he squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to get all the emotions within him to calm down, totally unprepared for what he would hear next, “But they’re both hurt badly and Felix was… Felix was unconscious.”

“Unconscious?!” Minho was the one who shouted that time, and Jisung was quick to place a hand soothingly on his shoulder, for some reason not looking at all surprised by the manager’s words.

“How?! How is he unconscious?” Chan exclaimed.

“We don’t quite know what happened, but I’m going to be honest with you all now,” the manager took a deep breath and the small pause almost killed them with suspense that it created, “It looks like they were beaten.”

The panic in the room had increased drastically at the news that Felix was unconscious, but it was nothing compared to when they heard the word ‘beaten’. Gasps from everyone, including Jisung, twisted their way through the air and the shock from it hung menacingly in the atmosphere. Half of them went completely rigid, frozen by the nausea that came with the news. Whilst the other half just lost all feeling in their bodies, slumping down to the floor and sharing looks with each other that conveyed nothing but extreme horror. 

“We’re going…” Chan forced the words out through gritted teeth, knuckles white as he gripped the phone, “We’re going to see them, right?”

“Of course,” the manager answered straight away, “We’re sending the drivers now and we’re going to get some hospital staff to sneak you all into the back of the hospital, so you won’t be recognised. I’m going to need you outside the door as soon as the cars arrive.”

“We’ll be there,” Chan said, looking up and catching the eyes of the rest of the group, everyone nodding simultaneously in a silent agreement that there was no way the weren’t going to see Woojin and Felix. 

“Okay, they’ll be there in ten minutes,” the manager said, “Be ready and stay safe, okay?”

“You too, hyung,” Chan responded before hanging up the phone. An uncomfortable silence blanketed the room as they all stopped to take a breath, brains still trying to process the relief that came with finding out Woojin and Felix were alive and the revulsion that followed when they learned about what had potentially happened to them. 

Chan allowed his body to still for a couple of seconds, letting all the warring emotions inside of him quieten before he opened his mouth, ‘leader voice’ bouncing firmly off the walls.

“Okay everyone, you heard, hyung. We leave in ten!” he shouted and everyone got ready to leap into action, but were unexpectedly cut off by Jisung releasing a surprised yelp and throwing himself towards Chan.

“Wait, hyung!” he exclaimed, voice frantic and body stumbling as he quickly whipped out his phone and started fumbling to unlock it without actually clicking any of the buttons that would allow him to do so, “You need to see this.”

“Jisung, I really don’t think-“ Chan tried to intervene, but Jisung cut him off, now fiddling more anxiously with the phone after apparently managing to figure out how it unlocked, quickly scrolling to try and locate the mystery picture he had just seen.

“Trust me, hyung,” he said, eyes still glued to the screen, “It’s important.”

There were a few more seconds of fidgeting before Jisung found what he needed and a victorious ‘ah-hah!’ left his lips. He quickly zoomed in as best as he could, an unreadable expression appearing on his face before he flipped the phone around to face Chan.

Chan took the phone into his fingers and gasped at what was displayed on screen. It was a photo of Felix being carried away from the JYP building on a stretcher, a woman clearly in ambulance uniform leaning steadily over him as two others gripped onto the handles at each end. The photo, along with a few others, had been uploaded by a news site trying to see if people could identify who was injured and whether they had contactable family. Chan didn’t need to go into the comment section to know it’d be full of concerned stays. 

The photo itself was relatively blurry and obviously taken from a significant distance but it was clear enough for Chan to see that Felix’s eyes were shut and his entire body had gone completely slack, limbs folded loosely over himself. His skin was a sickening white and Chan could make out gruesome marks on his face that had most definitely not been there this morning. An arrow pierced Chan’s heart when he thought about how the bruises were probably only the injuries that were visible in the photo, that there was a very, very strong possibility that Felix had more. 

A sharp intake of breath pulled Chan out of his thoughts, and he turned to catch the eyes of Jeongin who had leaned over Chan’s shoulder to peer at whatever Jisung had seen on the phone that had gotten him rattled.

“Felix-hyung…” the whisper drew itself out the maknae’s lips and Chan was too busy staring at him in sympathy to notice the phone being slipped out of his hands as another member tried to get a look at whatever was on it.

“Jeongin… hey,” Chan turned around and bundled the maknae into his arms, wrapping one arm around both his shoulders and using the other to rub soothing circles on his back, “Felix is going to be okay. They’re taking him to the hospital and we’re going to visit him now, yeah? Don’t worry, he’s going to be fine.”

The maknae nodded and let out a small sniffle against his chest, looping both of his arms around Chan’s waist as the leader continued to whisper kind, comforting words into his ears.

“Are you going to be alright?” Chan asked after a couple of minutes, smiling widely when Jeongin looked up at him and grinned a nervous ‘yes’ in response. Chan carefully let him out of his arms but kept a hand comfortingly on his shoulder as he turned to address the rest of the group, noting the slightly pale, panicked looks that now lined all the members’ faces. 

“Alright everyone,” he said firmly, “Go grab your shoes, jackets, masks and anything else that will cover your faces. If we get recognised, then it might draw a crowd outside the hospital and I do not want to make things more stressful for Woojin and Felix so grab as much as you can.”

With that, the dorm descended into chaos. Seven boys formed a tornado as they sprinted haphazardly from room-to-room, swearing in surprise when they collided unexpectedly with one another in various doorways and corridors, hardly noticing the shouts of ‘Language!’ from Chan in the other room. 

They all met back in the living room, various caps and beanies pulled low on their faces with masks clutched firmly in their hands or already looped around their ears, hiding as much of their identity as possible. 

Chan raked his eyes over each of them, checking everything was in order before grabbing the bag he had packed full of phone chargers, snacks and spare clothes for Woojin and Felix should they require them. It was usually a Woojin kind of thing to pack a bag of random things they might need, but Chan knew he wouldn’t feel right leaving without one so he’d grabbed his backpack and thrown in a range of the things Woojin would usually include, knowing the weird familiarity of it would bring an odd sense of comfort to him and the rest of the group. 

“Everyone ready?” he asked, checking everyone either mumbled out a ‘yes’ or nodded before he led them all outside. 

The cars, like the manager had said, pulled up just as they walked out the door and Chan readied himself to step in to help them separate into two groups again. But he was pleasantly surprised to find out that the members had found themselves a new kind of determination and they all threw each other reassuring looks as Jeongin and Seungmin linked arms and walked over to the front car, Hyunjin running up behind them and draping himself over both of their shoulders as he followed them in. 

Changbin gave Chan a warm smile as the leader turned to follow him, Minho and Jisung into the back car, waiting for them all to climb in before he settled himself in one of the free seats and pulled the door closed behind them. 

“You guys ready?” Chan asked as the car drove off, twisting in his seat to face Changbin, Minho and Jisung.

“Definitely,” Jisung instantly responded, voice only shaking a little, “I’m scared that they’re hurt, but I want to be there for them.”

“I agree,” Minho added from next to him, “I know we’ve only been apart since this morning, but it’s about time we were a nine again.”

And a nine they became.

They made it to the hospital without a second to spare and were immediately ushered into a side door to prevent them being recognised by anyone outside that might draw a crowd. They were led in and out of numerous white corridors by a hospital warden and the further they walked, the more anxious they became. The numerous injured patients around them did nothing to calm their nerves and by the time they arrived at a reception desk, they were all clinging to one another, praying that their bandmates weren’t seriously hurt. 

“Kim Woojin and Lee Felix,” the manager said the moment they reached the counter, drumming his fingers anxiously against the surface as the receptionist began to type on her computer. 

Every key she pressed sounded like a gunshot in their all minds and they all began to squirm as the seconds went by, biting their nails and gripping tight to one another to keep themselves grounded in the moment and not imagining the sight that would greet them the moment they entered their members’ hospital rooms. 

A look of confusion crossed the woman’s face and they all felt their hearts drop to the floor and smack against the cold tile in a terrifying rush as she tilted her head. The white walls of the hospital began to look splattered in red as their brains began to imagine the worst situations possible.

Their members had supposedly been beaten, how badly injured were they?

Why did the woman who was supposed to find them look confused?

“It seems Mr Kim has already been discharged,” the receptionist spoke up and Chan didn’t know whether to be relieved or even more frightened.

“Discharged?” the manager asked, shocked, “Does that means he’s okay?”

“Most likely,” the receptionist answered as her eyes scanned the computer, “It seems he’s already received the treatment he required and signed the discharge papers himself.”

“So where the hell is he?!” Minho was yelling and marching towards the desk before he could stop himself, mind set on one thing and one thing only: finding his friends. His fear of the unknown was simmering again, boiling slowly under the surface of his skin and getting ready to explode as the minutes ticked by, signalling that it had been way too long since he’d seen some of his members. It’d been way too long considering he didn’t even know whether they were okay.

That was what he hated; not knowing.

But then a footstep came towards him and a soft hand was placed on his shoulder, squeezing it gently as the hot water inside of him cool down ever so slightly. His eyes latched with Chan’s momentarily before he threw an apologetic look to the receptionist. Luckily, she hadn’t even flinched at the outburst. In fact, she only looked at them with sympathy as Minho leaned dejectedly into Chan’s touch.

“I don’t know his exact location,” she said softly, “But I’m going to give you Mr Lee’s room number. Mr Lee is still unconscious and I’m sure he could use visitors. Whilst you’re there you can ask about Mr Kim, him and Mr Lee were being treated only a couple of rooms away from each other so the doctors there will be probably know where he went.”

“Okay,” the manager choked out, shakily taking the map that had Felix’s room circled on it, “Thank you for your help.”

“It was no problem,” the receptionist replied, her eyes landing on Minho and softening slightly, “If you have any problems then come back here and we will help you out.”

“Thank you,” Minho whispered, before he was tugged away by Chan and the group began to walk in the direction the manager led them, practically running as their feet pulled them down white corridor after white corridor.

It took them almost five minutes to find the room and by that point they were all made up of worry. Not knowing where Woojin was, not knowing what condition they would find Felix in, not knowing if they were even okay was downright terrifying. The fact that Woojin had been discharged suggested he was doing alright, but they knew now that they couldn’t trust anything until they saw it.

“Okay gang,” Chan whispered as they stared up at the door to Felix’s room, almost too afraid to go in, “Remember it’s all going to be okay, yeah? We have to be strong for them now.”

His voice shook a little at the end and he briefly registered Hyunjin’s hand slipping into his own, squeezing it in an attempt to share comfort. It was a small gesture, but it did wonders for Chan. They could get through this, he knew that now. 

They could get through anything so long as they were together.

It was this very thought that motivated him to reach his hand out and push down the door handle, cautiously opening the door to a sight he had never welcomed more in his entire life. 

The first thing his eyes landed on was Woojin. The boy whipped round the moment the door was open and Chan choked for air, relief burning through his brain and tingling all the way down to his toes, body alive with the knowledge that Woojin was right there, right there in front of them where he belonged. 

Before he even processed it, Chan was running. Running towards Woojin like there was nothing else in the world that mattered. 

Woojin met him halfway and their bodies collided, breaths punctured out of their lungs with the force at which their limbs melded together. Chan’s arms immediately flung themselves around Woojin’s shoulders and Woojin wrapped one arm around Chan’s waist and coiled the other round his head, fingers tangling in the messy locks. 

“Chan,” Woojin sobbed the name into Chan’s shoulder and Chan burst into tears at the sound of it, skin vibrating where he felt Woojin’s touch pressing into him, reminding him that they were together again.

Woojin was here.

Woojin was okay.

Woojin was in his arms.

He had gotten Woojin back, and he was never letting go.

“I’m right here,” he cried into Woojin’s neck, hot tears running messily down the smooth skin and making the pair shiver as their bodies blended together, “I’m right here, okay? We’re together now. We’re all safe, I promise.”

Woojin sobbed harder at the words and Chan tightened his grip, trying to tell himself that this was real, that Woojin was here now and, despite all the worrying they’d all done for him, they were finally reunited.

After what felt like hours, Chan reluctantly pulled away and leaned back to look directly into Woojin’s eyes, losing himself in the glossy orbs as he raked his gaze over every detail of the older boy’s face.

The sight broke his heart. Woojin had swelling and bruises suffocating the area around his nose, which was painfully crooked and out of place. Tears tracks were still glossed over the injuries, leading upwards to pain-filled eyes and red rims that were a similar sickening colour to the blood that stained the front of his shirt, splatters of it suffocating the white fabric and making Chan want to throw up. His hair was messy and tangled in a way that suggested he’d spent too long running his hands through it, every movement being controlled by the stress running rampant through his veins. 

Chan’s mind raced as he took in the devastation painted all over his friend and, without thinking, his hands came up to cup Woojin’s face, more tears brimming in both of their eyes. 

“Oh my god, Woojin,” he sobbed, “What happened to you? I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry.”

Shaking his head, Woojin brought both hands up to cling to Chan’s wrists, rubbing his thumbs over the soft skin as he felt the leader’s battling pulse under his fingertips. 

“It’s not your fault,” he said shakily, staring Chan dead in the eye, “I’m okay now. I’m okay and that’s all that matters.”

Chan’s breath hitched at the uncontrollable emotion that stirred within him at the words and he tried to nod as his throat closed up even more, but then he was suddenly pushed away, his hands falling from Woojin’s face as he stumbled backwards. Both Seungmin and Jeongin swept into the gap between the two older members, arms coming up to cling to Woojin like their lives depended on it. 

“Hyung,” Seungmin’s shaky voice was wept loudly into Woojin’s chest, “We’re so glad you’re okay.”

His words were laced with a terrified kind of relief that sent chills shivering down Woojin’s spine and Jeongin nodded his agreement, entire body shaking with his cries. Woojin threw an arm around both of them, pulling them close as he buried his face in the top of their heads, crying into their hair. 

“You guys too,” he sobbed quietly, “I was so worried about you.”

His hands shook against their shoulders as he spoke and the two maknaes burrowed further into him, squeezing him almost unbearably tight as he welcomed them further into his embrace.

Despite everything, Hyunjin found himself able to smile at the sight as he watched them, silent tears streaming down his face as his heart fluttered in his chest. But then Chan moved from where he had been pushed away and came to stand next to Hyunjin, taking his hand and pulling Hyunjin’s attention back down to Felix in the bed. 

Hyunjin had run to Felix the moment he had entered the room, eager to be by the side of the best friend he had been separated from for way too long. But then he had been horrified to find a pale, bruised, unconscious boy in the place of the usual ball of sunshine he had been desperate to see. Felix’s usually bright, bouncy hair was limp and messy and his skin was almost as white as the sheets below him, sickeningly colourless compared to the deep purples and blues that adorned his face, beautiful freckles barely noticeable under the gruesome cruelty that had been inflicted on him. But that didn’t mean Hyunjin could stop the absolutely overwhelming relief from flooding him at finally having Felix in front of him again. The boy had clearly been through hell, but at least he was alive, at least the other members were here to take care of him now. 

At least they were a nine again.

The thought caused Hyunjin to choke back a sob as he brought to hand up to rest comfortingly on Felix’s shoulder. What he really wanted to do was hold Felix’s hand, like Changbin was doing on the other side of the bed, but there was a thick, white bandage coating the wrist on this side and Hyunjin felt sick just thinking about that. So he settled for lightly stroking a thumb across Felix’s collarbone instead, hoping the skin would warm under his touch.

A small noise left Felix lips at the contact and the entire group whipped around and watched with bated breaths as the young boy stirred slightly before nuzzling himself into Hyunjin’s hand and settling once more into sleep.

Hyunjin completely lost it at that. Unforgiving sobs racked harshly through his frame as he buried his face in his hands, confusing levels of relief, horror and endearment boiling within him as he cried, releasing all the pent-up distress that had built throughout the awful day. 

He briefly registered himself being pulled into a hug from behind and the sobs hit him ten times harder as he recognised the gentle touch to be Woojin’s.

Woojin was here.

Woojin was safe.

He was back in Woojin’s arms once more.

“Hyung,” the plea slipped from his lips before he had even registered it, and there was enough pain laced in it for Woojin to quickly spin Hyunjin around, cupping the back of his neck with a large hand and carefully guiding his face down to land on Woojin’s shoulder. 

“I’m so glad to see you Hyunjinnie,” Woojin whispered into his hair, slowly rocking him back and forth as he cried, “It’s all okay now. It’s okay. I’m right here, I promise.”

Changbin felt his own eyes prickling as he watched Hyunjin sob harder at the words, both arms coming to wrap tightly around Woojin’s neck. He squeezed harder on Felix’s hand and stared down at the younger’s sleeping face. Changbin told himself he was imagining it, but he could have sworn that Felix looked more at peace now that they were all crowded round his bed. Minho and Jisung were both practically pressed into Changbin, Minho with a hand resting lightly on Felix’s knee and Jisung just staring down at the boy with unshed tears in his eyes, occasionally reaching a hand down to run his fingertips hesitantly over the blankets. 

Seungmin and Jeongin were stood further away at the end of the bed, both tucked under the arms of Chan who had gone over to them now that they had finally let go of Woojin. They all stared silently at Felix’s face, eyes sad but endeared now that they finally were reunited with him.

And Felix looked almost… peaceful, like he knew they were there somehow, like he knew they were going to protect him now. 

The thought brought tears to Changbin’s eyes and he carefully pulled up Felix’s hand to press a small kiss onto the soft skin, hoping that Felix could somehow feel it and would know that they were all going to be there for him when he was ready to open his eyes. 

Woojin watched the interaction over Hyunjin’s head as the younger boy gradually began to calm in his arms, his eyes met Changbin’s over the bed and a silent conversation took place between the two. A silent conversation in which Changbin used his face to convey all the sincerity he had about how relieved he was that Woojin was okay and Woojin smiled back gratefully, squeezing Hyunjin’s shoulders as he let him go. 

He made his way round to the other side of the bed and was pulled into a group hug with Changbin, Minho and Jisung, cherishing every moment he got the spend with the three boys in his arms. 

They smiled as they breathed Woojin’s scent in, reminding themselves that they were all together now, that nothing could go wrong when they were reunited as a group. 

The thought warmed their hearts as they all slowly turned back to Felix, waiting patiently for the boy to wake up so they could be a complete group once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're all together again!!
> 
> A lot of people commented saying that they were excited for the reunion between the members, so I really hope I lived up to your expectations and that no one is disappointed?
> 
> In the next chapter, Felix will wake up and we'll have some cute, cheesy moments to finish this all off. That will come out at some point this weekend depending on when I've edited it.
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope you're all safe and happy and getting enough sleep <3


	9. Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There was fear. There was relief. There was confusion. And there were a whole load of feelings that he probably didn’t even know the names of.
> 
> But most of all, there was a feeling of safety.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... we've reached the end.
> 
> As excited as I am to post this chapter, I am also very sad that this story is over. It has been a wild ride from start to finish and I have loved every second.
> 
> I really, really hope you all enjoy the ending! xx

Felix’s eyes opened unbearably slowly.

It felt like there was a weight lying heavily on his eyelids. A weight that relentlessly refused to give up as he tiredly tried to open them. The simple movement was unnecessarily exhausting and he found himself briefly scrambling through his fuzzy mind, trying to figure out why it was so hard to do something as mundane as opening his eyes. 

Eventually he managed it, but the glaring light in the room surprised him and all his progress was undone by him whipping his head to the side and snapping his eyes shut again, a small whimper leaving his lips.

He waited until the light piercing through his eyelids had died down a little before trying to open them again. All the objects in the room blurred messily into one and he tilted his head in confusion before they slowly pulled apart again and formed a room filled with confusing, simple furniture and decorated with a whole lot of white.

“Lix?” the voice caught him off guard, sounding soft and comforting and overwhelmingly familiar to the point that Felix’s heart skipped a beat at the sound of it, “Lix, are you with us?”

Felix wanted to answer the question, but his head was too fuzzy to register the words properly and he didn’t think his lips would be able to form his response anyway. He lazily dragged his gaze over to whoever it was that had spoken, eyes landing on the figure sat beside him on what he now realised was a hospital bed. His brain took a couple of seconds to catch up and then suddenly he was overwhelmed by realisation as a single thought entered his head: Chan.

Seeing the leader sat next to him ignited a whole range of emotions within Felix’s chest. There was fear. There was relief. There was confusion. And there were a whole load of feelings that he probably didn’t even know the names of.

But most of all, there was a feeling of safety.

“Hyung,” the word left him through chapped lips, so quiet he was surprised that anyone had been able to hear it. But Chan’s face lit up and Felix felt his heart twitch at the sight of it, a soft palm coming to rest soothingly on his shoulder.

“Hyung’s here now,” Chan said quietly, a small smile gracing his lips as he began to trace calming circles onto Felix’s skin, “Hyung’s here with you, and Seungmin’s here too, see? We’re both right here.”

Felix felt his ears prick at the words and he quickly turned his head to see Seungmin perched on the other side of the bed, staring down at Felix with kind, concerned eyes.

“Seungminnie,” the word was dragged out of him by intense relief as he stared up at his friend, indescribably comforted at the feeling of having two members with him again. 

“Hey Lixie,” Seungmin smiled, reaching out to carefully tuck some of Felix’s hair behind his ear, “How are you feeling?”

Felix thought about the question, finally taking time to look down the bed as he suddenly registered the dull throbbing in various parts of his body. Confusion spurred within him for a few moments, his brain still needing the time to catch up before he suddenly realised what the injuries were and the memories hit him like a train. 

“Woojin-hyung!” the yell had torn itself out of his throat before he’d even registered the word entering his mind. It left his lips in a strangled mess as he bolted upright in the bed, both hands coming to cling frantically to Chan’s shirt, eyes wide and desperate as he briefly noticed the thick, white bandage that had appeared on one of his wrists. 

“Oh my god, Woojin-hyung!” he shouted, veins alight with fire as the panic bubbled further in his chest, “Channie, he was hurt! Woojin was hurt! Is he okay? They hurt him! I think his nose was broken! Oh my god, where is he? Is he okay?”

The words left him in a distorted mess of Korean and English, honorifics well and truly forgotten in the chaos. Luckily, Chan had always somehow been able to understand him perfectly and the leader was quick to move closer to Felix, placing both hands gently over the balled-up fists Felix was using to grip his shirt.

“Shhh, Lix, it’s okay, Woojin’s okay,” he spoke with a calm, gentle tone, Australian accent subtly lacing his words and giving them a sweet, homely feel that always had Felix melting whenever he heard it, “It’s all okay, Lixie. Everything’s okay. I just need you to calm down for me, yeah?”

“Woojin,” Felix tearfully whispered the word as he was gently pushed back down into a lying down position, head cushioned by the soft pillow and blanket bunching comfortingly around his waist. It was when his back hit the mattress that he realised sitting up quickly with broken ribs had maybe not been a good idea if the sudden flaring pain was anything to go by. 

Both his arms immediately came to wrap around his middle as he whimpered, attempting to curl up but being stopped by the gentle but firm grips of Chan and Seungmin.

“Lix, I know it hurts but try not to move, okay?” Seungmin said in English, one of his hands lightly squeezing Felix’s uninjured one, “Just breathe through it. You’re doing so well.” 

Felix listened as well as he could, eyes closing in concentration as he attempted to pull in a deep, steady breath through shattered ribs. It was painful at first but the calmer he felt, the easier it became, and he slowly became aware of the warm thumb stroking the back of his hand and the soft, encouraging words floating into his ears. 

Gradually, he relaxed into a calmer state, reminding himself that he wouldn’t be any use to Woojin, or any of his bandmates, if he was panicking.

“Where’s Woojin-hyung?” was the first question out of his mouth after the pain and fear had subdued enough for him to open his eyes again. He watched as Chan caught Seungmin’s eyes over the top of him, the two taking a second to share a slightly endeared, relieved smile before turning back to face him.

“Woojin is downstairs in the café with everyone else,” Chan answered, love and slight amusement dancing playfully in his eyes, “He’s completely fine, Lixie.”

“What?” Felix’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion, “But he was hurt?”

“He was, but he was discharged from the hospital just before we got here,” Chan explained “He was already in here when the lady at reception guided us to this room. We’d been worried at first when the hospital said they’d already discharged him, but we were relieved to find him right here next to you.”

“And his injuries?” Felix asked, still processing the information.

“He’s got a broken nose like you said,” Chan answered, “And a few bruises that are going to hurt for a while, but I promise you he’s okay.”

A rush of warmth bloomed in Felix’s chest at the words and he found himself breathing a huge sigh of relief, sinking further into the sheets as he allowed the tension to leave him. He’d been so goddamn terrified seeing Woojin writhing on the floor earlier that day, blood pouring sickeningly down his face. But hearing that he was okay, hearing that the hospital had already discharged him, helped Felix to dispel the horrible image from his mind. He knew he’d never be able to forget it completely, but at least now he could replace it with images of a happy Woojin that Felix could continue to collect now that he knew he was okay. 

“Thank god,” he whispered, Chan and Seungmin humming quietly in agreement. Fortunately, Felix was too wrapped up in his relief to notice the silent agreement the two made with each other across the bed, trying to prepare one another for what they were going to have to say next.

“Felix, we think it’s best that you know,” Seungmin started, tone serious and eyes slightly dark as he stared down at Felix, “Woojin-hyung told us everything.”

Felix’s eyes immediately snapped to Seungmin, a fearful expression appearing on his face, “What?” he whispered.

“He told us everything that happened to both of you,” Chan continued, “You don’t have to talk to us about it until you’re ready, but we just think it’s best that you know that we are aware of what went down in that building. But like I said, there is not and never will be any pressure on you or him to talk about it.”

“Woojin-hyung didn’t really want to talk about it either,” Seungmin said softly, “It was actually after he finished explaining that we sent him down to the café with everyone else. He looked really weak and upset and we suddenly realised that none of us had eaten since this morning.”

“I tried to send Seungmin down with them,” Chan added with a fond look in Seungmin’s direction, “But he refused to leave your side.”

Despite everything, Felix found himself smiling at the words, even letting out a little giggle when he noticed Seungmin’s blush. It was true that Seungmin was very stubborn, especially when it came to his friends. Felix could practically imagine the resolute look Seungmin would have had on his face and the way he would have made a show out of planting himself on the bed when all the other members tried to talk him down to the café. 

“It’s okay guys,” Felix said with a shy look down at his hands, “I’m glad that you know and I’m really, really glad that you’re here. Even if you should have gone to get something to eat with the others.”

“You don’t need to worry about that, we told them to bring us something up,” Seungmin answered happily before a look of realisation dawned on his face and he promptly whipped out his phone, “Speaking of which, I’m just going to text them now. I’ll get them to bring you up something.” 

Felix had been about to open his mouth and say that that wasn’t necessary and Seungmin had been about to hit send on the text when suddenly the door flew open and a squealing Jeongin came bounding in. 

“Hyungs!” Jeongin had a crazed grin on his face, one hand holding what looked like a sandwich box and the other holding a bright yellow smoothie that he hadn’t yet realised was spilling all other the edge of the cup, “Is Felix-hyung awake yet?”

Before he’d even gotten an answer to his question, his eyes landed on Felix and his whole face lit up, large eyes forming adorable crescents and smoothie spilling over to the point that it now coated his entire hand, not that he noticed. 

“Felix-hyung!” he squealed and suddenly there was a colossal rush of noise as the other members all crashed into the doorway behind him, almost tackling the maknae with the force at which they’d all come barrelling in after hearing his shout. 

Chan and Seungmin burst out laughing at the sight and the sound was music to Felix’s ears, even if he had to hold back his own laughs to avoid the pain that it would cause his ribs. The other members just stared at them in awe, completely frozen in the doorway like they were scared that this perfect image would be shattered if they dared to move. 

Felix had to suck in a breath when he realised that it was all nine of them again, all nine of them together in one room after having survived one of the most terrifying events of their lives. There had been a moment today when Felix had doubted whether he’d be able to see any of them again, but they were all here in front of him now and the feeling that it gave him was enough to bring tears to his eyes.

The tears started falling when suddenly Woojin shoved his way through all the boys in the doorway and dashed his way over to Felix’s side, Seungmin promptly hopping off the side of the bed and moving out the way so the two could reunite. 

Even through his tears, Felix could see the swelling that covered Woojin’s face and the pain lines around his eyes that he was evidently trying hard to hide. Thankfully, he had changed his clothes from earlier that day so he was at least no longer wearing the crinkled, blood-stained garments that he’d had on when they brought him to the hospital. 

“Felix…” Woojin whispered, staring into Felix’s eyes like he never wanted to look away again, overwhelmed by the shock and amazement that he felt at being able to see his friend awake again.

“Hey hyung,” Felix whispered back tearfully, letting out a small sob when Woojin wrapped both arms around his neck and pulled himself close, knowing better than anyone that he had to be gentle with Felix right now, that he had to avoid aggravating the numerous injuries Felix was sporting.

The rest of the room watched on with tears in their own eyes, approaching the bed slowly and stopping close enough that they felt included but not so close that they were intruding on what they knew was a precious moment. 

The pair sobbed quietly into each other, using soft touches and whispered cries to convey just how grateful they were to have each other in that moment, how glad they were to have both been able to survive.

Too soon, Woojin pulled away and gently helped Felix lie down again, quickly using his large palms to wipe the tears off Felix’s freckles before bringing them up to brush away the tears on his own face.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Woojin admitted quietly, keeping his eyes locked with Felix’s as the younger took his hand, “I was so scared when I saw you pass out. I tried to get to you but they wouldn’t let me get up. I came here as soon as I could, I’m so sorry.”

“God hyung, don’t be sorry,” Felix immediately responded, “I’m glad they treated you. I’m glad they made sure you were okay as well. I mean after everything that happened to you…”

Felix trailed off, still hearing Woojin’s scream in his head as the memories replayed over in his mind, reminding him of what could have happened if help didn’t arrive for them when it did. Woojin noticed the glazed look that appeared in his eyes and didn’t hesitate to squeeze his hand, pulling him back to reality. Felix eyes immediately snapped to him, shimmering with earnest as the two shared a look, silently promising each other that they wouldn’t ever be alone in this, that they were going to get through it together. 

“Well I’m pretty sure I speak for everyone when I say we’re all glad that both of you are here,” Chan’s soft voice pulled them out of their daze, “Not knowing where you were, not knowing what had happened to you, not knowing if you were even alive made me realise how important it is that we always stay as a nine. If we had lost anyone today, I don’t know how Stray Kids would cope.”

The entire group nodded in agreement, unintentionally shuffling closer together as they processed the words. 

“You two protected each other today,” Changbin nodded towards Woojin and Felix, “Chan-hyung was the one who led Jisung and I out. Minho-hyung made sure him and everyone in his group were safe. We kept each other alive and we stuck together as best as we could. We wouldn’t be alive without each other.”

“And we wouldn’t be sane if we hadn’t been there to comfort each other,” Hyunjin spoke up, tears glistening on his cheeks, “I almost completely broke today not knowing where Woojin-hyung and Felix were. I would have given up altogether if it hadn’t been for everyone else.”

“I really don’t know how you two managed it,” Jisung added quietly, eyes shining as he looked at Woojin and Felix, “Just you two, fighting against those men on your own. I can’t even imagine it.”

Woojin and Felix looked at each other knowingly, small smiles appearing on their faces as they squeezed each other’s hands again before turning back to the rest of the group. 

“We just knew we had an amazing family to get back to,” Woojin said proudly, “We couldn’t let the seven of you go on without us.”

“Besides,” Felix added, a cheeky grin lining his face, “All I could think about was what you guys would do if I wasn’t able to get Woojin-hyung back in one piece. You’d burn down the dorm without him.”

The entire room dissolved into giggles, Woojin playfully hitting Felix on the shoulder, making sure to avoid all the injuries he knew Felix had. Felix just stuck out his tongue in return, too tired to try and counter with a physical attack. 

“Awwww Lixie,” Minho cut in as he watched the exchange, “That all you got?”

Felix turned tired eyes over to Minho, pinning him with an admittedly adorable glare that was probably supposed to look intimidating. 

“I’ll get him back in a few days,” Felix threatened, a huge yawn leaving his lips as the day’s events all began to catch up to him, completely ruining the definitely scary statement he had just made. 

“Oh, I’ll be waiting,” Woojin said softly, eyes loving as he watched Felix’s eyelids droop, carefully bringing up his hand to tangle in the younger’s hair, “But for now, why don’t you get some sleep?”

So Felix did, the soothing circles being rubbed onto his scalp and the gentle humming in his ear enough to bring him peacefully into dreamland as he closed his eyes, completely content with the knowledge that his entire group of nine would be there waiting for him when he woke up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... this is it.
> 
> I am honestly quite sad that this story is over. It was so much fun to write and I have really enjoyed reading and responding to all of your comments. This honestly started off so nerve-wracking for me and being able to write it and get a positive response was unbelievably helpful, so thank you so much for sticking with me on this. I know it's cheesy but your comments would honestly make my day sometimes so I want you to know that I appreciate every single read, every single kudos and every single response.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> Now that was a little cheesy.
> 
> On a lighter note, this story may or may not have inspired me to write a completely unrelated romantic Woolix oneshot that I am already 10k+ words into (yes I know, I need to be STOPPED). So if you're interested, do look out for that. (UPDATE: this story is up, it is called ‘Toothpaste on the Mirror’ if you want to check it out) 
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed the ending, have an AMAZING day!! xx <33

**Author's Note:**

> All comments and kudos and everything are really, really appreciated. I try my best to reply to every comment xx
> 
> Feel free to check out any of my other published fics.
> 
> Twitter: @hotelfelixxie - I follow back and sometimes I post little mini drabbles that are too unedited or short for Ao3 if you'd like to check them out (they're in my threads) xx
> 
> Have a blessed day xx


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